Sunday, May 25, 2008

The stairs are mastered!

Frenchie just got back from physical therapy and he walked down and climbed a flight of stairs! Wooohooo! We all told him that today we are going to push him more and more today since that is the key to getting everything functioning again! I also threatened to call DW and DH (a friend of ours that has been through a surgery like this) if Frenchie did not want to get up and walk! Frenchie had the nervous smile on his face after that! :)

Beware - bodily functions discussed below!

Saturday started out great. Frenchie got up and walked with the physical therapist down the hall with no walker or help from anyone! The catheter came out at 11 am Saturday so the rest of the day was trying to get everything moving and operating again. However Frenchie's body had a different idea of how the day was going to go. At about 2:30 in the afternoon Frenchie thought that a trip to the bathroom would be a highly good idea :) After sitting there for about 20 -30 minutes with no results he went back to bed. This routine of going to the bathroom occurred over and over again until about 7 at night when Frenchie's stomach couldn't handle it any more. The nurses had to put a catheter in mid afternoon to help Frenchie's body move things along and that came out right away (a temporary catheter). At 11 that night the nurses said that Frenchie needed to #1 or the catheter would have to go back in on a more "permanent" basis. They nurses did tell him however that the more he walked the better the chances of something happening. Needless to say he was practically sprinting down the hallways :) unfortunately that did not work so we said we would walk more on Sunday and get things going!To help further things along in the "other department", the nurses kept coming in with these concoctions that they "swear" will get him to do his thing with in 30 minutes - this was 10 at night... Again Frenchie started his bathroom routine with no luck and finally at 2:30 in the morning that part of Frenchie's body decided to start working! Now we just need to continue to keep it working. The good news out of the whole thing was that he was getting plenty of exercises!

Now its Sunday morning and Frenchie is doing well. The doctor came in to see how Frenchie was doing and told Frenchie that he need to have a good day today and then a good recovery day tomorrow and he could go home on Tuesday. Frenchie was pretty perky this morning and telling all the new nurses of his trials and tribulations of the night before. The physical therapist just came in so I will write more later!

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Last night went much better than the night before. We actaully had a nurse who could help, was prompt and excellent at helping Frenchie shift positions during the night! Fenchie was actually able to get some sleep - something he has not been able to do since Wednesday! He did have some substantial pain yesterday but he took deep breathes and what ever medication they could give him and he relaxed and no has little to no pain this morning. Breakfast was brought in but Frenchie was so exausted thta he managed a few bites and went back to sleep. It is comforting to see him sleep so soundly! The doctor also came in this morning to check on Fenchie and said everything looked great and that as long as Frenchie keeps on this healing track he will be out either Monday or Tuesday. Today Frenchie needs to get up a couple more times during the day and then again in the evening. The even better news....the cathider comes out sometime this morning -Dan's (a friend of ours) most favorita part of surgery...note the sarcasim! :)

Friday, May 23, 2008

Not only does he stand but he WALKS!

We just got back from Frenchie taking his first walk and he walks like the champ he truly is! He walked out of his room It is so much fun to see him progressing so much in such a little time!

He's Up!

Frenchie walks! Frenchie got up for the first time after surgery! YEA!! Congrats Honey!!!!! It took a lot of deep breathing and slow moving but he did it! I am so proud of Frenchie! It brought tears to my eyes to see him get up but they were tears of joy! As much hard work as it was it was a huge accomplishment for Frenchie!

Frenchie's back surgery went fantastic!

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to keep you up to date on how Frenchie is doing. The surgery went fantastic and the doctors are very pleased.

We stayed over at a friends house wednesday night since we had to be at the hosptial at 5:50 in the morning to prep Frenchie for his 7:30 surgery. Frenchie went through prep and very little nervousness. He came out of his surgery at 1:43 and as you will read below did not get to his room until 5:30. The doctor came and explained that everything went fantastic.

everything went very smooth with the exception that his room was not ready after surgery so he had to stay in the recovery room for 4 hours and listen to about 20 different heart monitors going from all the other patients! Frenchie's dad stayed with him last night and helped to keep the nurses on track. Needless to say the overnight nurses were very weak on their performance in regards to helping Frenchie. They did not have him switch positions every few hours like he was supposed to so he was on his back since he had gotten out of surgery at 1:30 Thursday. We have let the staff know the issue and we will make sure those issues do not happen again for the rest of his stay.

Today however is going better. One of the doctors from the surgery came in and checked Frenchie out and said everything looked great! Frenchie is also managing the pain and getting ready to get up and walk so I will let you know how that goes! As for me, I am glad that yesterday is over. It was very emotional to sit in the waiting room and not be able to physically be next to the person you love to comfort him but spititually We were next to each other the entire time!

I am so proud of him! I could have never gone through what he did as calmly and patient as he has! He is one tough cookie! He is going to put his brace on for the first time so I will write later!

Thursday, April 10, 2008

BEWARE of rattlesnakes in AZ



There was a place in Arizona that actaully had baby rattlers in a box for people to see! CRAZY!.....



HAHAHAHAHAHA....just kidding it's just baby rattles! :)