Recovery from Surgery

So, while we were in the waiting room where Grady was having his surgery yesterday, I got yelled at by the receptionist. Apparently, I was too far away when they called from the operating room. They just called to let us know that everything was going fine. That same receptionist had given us a pager (the little black circle thingies that they give out at restaurants), and had asked for my cell phone number, but she chose to just yell out "Self" instead.

After that, we were stationed right near the desk. So, we were right there when they said it was time to go see Grady in the recovery room (where people go to recover from being under general anesthesia). It took us awhile to gather up the pile of technology (computer, IPod, etc.). By the time we got back there, we could hear our little guy crying and he did look a lot different. He was also quite mad that he couldn't put his hands in his mouth due to the "no-nos" on his arms keeping him from bending his elbows. On top of that, he was quite hungry from not being able to eat since 6:30 am (we went back to the recovery room at 3:30pm. However, he was happy to have some apple juice. Here are some recovery room pictures:



Ryan and I just realized that we somehow didn't get any pictures of our overnight stay in the hospital room. Apparently we were too busy taking care of our boys. Anyway, Grady actually slept really well last night. Ryan rubbed his head (in his carseat in the hospital crib to keep his head elevated, which was good because he doesn't like sleeping in unfamiliar places) until he took Jonah home and then I rubbed his head for about an hour. He fell asleep at 9pm and amazingly stayed asleep until 3:15 am. (He even missed some pain medication and slept through some blood pressure checks, which is no small miracle.) He had his pain medication and fell back asleep again at 4:30 and stayed asleep until 6:30.

In the morning, the surgeon came by and was happy that he had been drinking some apple juice out of a syringe. We were discharged at 9:15 am. We came home to watch a Bug's Life.



After some sleep, Grady was actually trying to play and read this afternoon.



We're all pretty exhausted and after this morning, Grady has been much more resistant to having formula, juice, or water out of the syringe. In the morning, I'm going to call the plastic surgery department to find out how many ounces he is supposed to have every day to know what to work toward. If anyone wants to pray that he will get the nourishment that he needs for recovery and that the rest of us won't snap at each other out of exhaustion, that would be greatly appreciated.

Jonah played in the backyard today, went to swim lessons, and tomorrow a friend is taking him to a museum. We are so lucky to have such great friends to help us here so we can focus on Grady. For that, we are very grateful.

Grady will be getting his outside stitches removed on Monday and will stay in the "no-nos" for about two weeks. I'll update more later.