July 29-Our baby news!

This has been a long time coming…I am so happy to announce that after two and a half years of trying, we are going to be having a baby! It has been a long hard road for us, especially coupled with learning about Aaron’s back and his surgery. Because it has taken so long and because we were dealing with Aaron’s stuff, it has been really hard for us to let ourselves believe that it is actually happening and start getting excited about it. We have been going through an awful lot. My first trimester was pretty rough. We were in school, and teaching a whole day and then coming home to Aaron was just exhausting, I was in a grad school class, and we had the stress of the Aaron stuff. Yes, I was pregnant all through Aaron’s pre-op appointment where I was trying hold him down alone and through the hospital stay after his surgery. I had so much fear and dread about his surgery that it was hard to balance the excitement about our baby, and for a long time I was sure that the stress was going to get the better of me and be really bad for my and our baby’s health. I asked my OB for advice about surgery day…how I could help calm my anxiety. She said chamomile tea, deep breathing and back rubs. I thought…are you kidding me? I don’t even know how I will keep myself from sobbing…CHAMOMILE TEA?!?!?! Turns out that I was stronger than I thought, and was able to stay very calm. I wanted to for our baby’s health, but most of all for Aaron, and that was all the motivation I needed I guess.

Although we told all of Aaron’s big sisters about the baby after our second ultrasound at the beginning of June that showed us moving arms and legs, we didn’t want to tell Aaron until his surgery was over and he was back to his old personality. Chris thought it would be a bad idea to give him anything else that could cause anxiety. It was hard not to talk to him about it, and once we did, it certainly helped make it more real for us.

Today was our BIG 20 week ultrasound day and everything looked great, so we are going public. Unfortunately, we did not get to bring home any pictures. The tech said that the lady before us wanted so many pictures that their paper ran out (?!!?!?! have you ever heard of such a thing?!?!?!?!) but I have to go back next week because they want to get a profile shot, and they will give me a CD of all the images then.

My parents and Ashley were waiting at home, dying to find out what we were having, and it turns out that Aaron’s wish came true…he is going to have a baby sister! He made that clear the night Chris and I told him that a new baby was on the way :)  I have been recording all the funny things he has said about the new baby and will most certainly be scrapping them.

The ultrasound went well, everything looked like it was supposed to (you better believe my eyes were trained on that little spine) and I was just so relieved to have another confirmation that our baby was growing fine.

Here are some pictures that we took to celebrate our good news. I hope to be back with ultrasound pictures next week!

Our due date is Christmas Eve…Chris feels certain it will be closer to the middle of the month…what a crazy time to have a baby, but that’s what we got and we will figure it out!

July 28

I didn’t take any pictures today, but luckily my dad got this one on his cell phone of Aaron and I working on brown paint. Mom is painting the wall behind us. How cute is my little Handy Aaron?

July 27

No painting today because we took Aaron on an outing. We made a trip to the Natural History Museum and he just LOVED it. He did not liked walking to and from the parking structure 4 or 5 blocks, and he did not like leaving the museum, but he loves everything in there. He was even mad that we didn’t go in the geology room.

My favorite thing at the museum is of course the Human Origins exhibit, which is newly expanded and improved. I love this Neanderthal burial scene.

Here’s Aaron in the Discovery Room looking at some butterflies through the microscope.

and touching the biggest grasshopper you have ever seen, pictured safely behind the glass below.

July 26

Lots of fun going on today!

First, Aaron wanted his picture taken in front of the Dan Patrick Show.It’s Grampy’s favorite and has been on most days. Aaron loves to watch it, and ASKED me to take his picture in front of it. Too bad it’s McLovin’ in the background.

Later, Jojo came by to make a food delivery for our dinner tonight and brought his frisky and adorable puppy, Dexter. He is ADORABLE. Aaron was a little freaked.

Here’s some delicious Filipino food that Jojo’s mom made for us. It was SO good!!

And in the evening (note that Aaron is in his jammies in every picture today), we did some painting in the Africa room! This is the blue at the top of the walls to make the African sky. Although an orangey sunset might be more evocative of the savannah, this goes with the lovely blue sky on the watering hole mural Aaron will have on one wall.

He REALLY wanted to help…so…gotta let him. It is his room after all.

July 25

Today Ash, Mom and I went to get pedicures. Can you guess whose feet are whose? Start by seeing which two pairs of feet look really similar(especially the toes…) those would be mom’s and mine.

We got a package in the mail today that was a completely adorable surprise. This is the BEST white cheddar popcorn you have ever had in your life. We don’t call it by it’s name though, to us it is known as Rock Band Popcorn. This is because my sister and her hubby, Kelly and Caleb, have had giant bags of this in their house when we are visiting and we take out the bag and sit it next to us while we play Rock Band. Between songs, we go in for a handful. It is so delicious. There was no label or slip with the box whatsoever, but I knew Kelly and Caleb had to have something to do with it. That was confirmed later when Kelly told me it was Caleb’s idea to send it. How cute is that??

July 24

Here is a tiny bit of the scariness that formerly existed in Courtney’s room. When the Africa Room is done and Aaron moves in, there will be a twin bed there, so Chris and my dad moved the large queen bed down to the garage. Once they got the mattress and box spring down there, the under bed area was revealed. Courtney came over from her mom’s to deal with this mess. Although it may seem like clutter and junk, there is plenty of true nastiness under there, hence the lack of a zoomed in photo. It’s not the kind of area you want to touch. She cleaned it up really quickly, amassing a huge bag of trash, and the “after” picture is below.

ta-da!

July 22-23

I don’t have any pictures for these days. I can tell you though that progress on the room has continued. The wallpaper and chair rail are down and holes have been patched. On Friday, we had Neecer’s famous lasagna and on Saturday, Neecer’s parents drove an hour each way to bring us a huge barbeque pork dinner with all the trimmings.

July 21

Here are the boys enjoying a little tv. Tonight we had our first of two dinners provided by Neecers! She brought us a delicious Paula Deen chicken casserole and the makings for Paula Deen’s Corn Casserole. Plenty of butter, but really good!

July 20

Okay, if you are severely squeamish, be warned that I will have a picture of Aaron’s incision at the end of this post. It is not open or anything, and is covered with little strips, but, just saying.

But first, we have begun work on Aaron’s new big boy room, which has been Courtney’s room up to this point, but is now going to be converted into “The Africa Room.” we are very excited about beginning this project and working on it with my parents help. Aaron is very excited about having a bigger room with more space to play and store his toys, and of course, he picked the theme. This is somewhat of a before picture, although not a truly authentic one, because to show it before Courtney cleaned it for my parent’s stay would just be criminal. Couldn’t bear to photograph it. Anyone with teenage rooms in their houses? You know what I’m talking about. At least here you can see the girly purplishness of it. The bottom half of the walls has purple wallpaper that came with the house, and at the time we moved in, Courtney had a purple flowerdy bed set, so it worked out. She has changed bedsets since then, but no decorative modifications have been made to her room because we couldn’t bring ourselves to put a whole lot of money into a room with surfaces you can never see because it looks like a tornado/trash heap.

Okay, more room updates to come.

Now that Aaron doesn’t have to wear a dressing over his incision anymore, I find myself nervous that he’s going to get it scratched or irritated. The dressing was extremely itchy in the hospital, and giving him a fair bit of agony for his little 4 year old self. He was constantly asking us to scratch his back, and of course, I would lightly rub around it, and he would say, “No Mommy, SCRATCH it, give me your claws.”

Now that the dressing is off and the skin continues to heal, we hope the itch will start to subside.

Ready for it???

As you can see, he has some bruises and irritation around it. At the time of this picture he still had plenty of bruises all over himself from surgery positioning and multiple IV lines, but as I make this post on 7/25, most of that is gone. The band-aid is over the hole where his drain tube was inserted. When the dressing came off that was just exposed, and since it was a hole in his back, I figured it deserved a little covering. Those strips will start to dissolve and fall off on their own in a couple of weeks. This is why he can’t be in water, because that would cause them to fall off before they should. They are all still there, but we will post another picture of his back after they are gone.

July 19

Here is Aaron watching something on his iPod. I thought it was so cute how he got in this position on the couch and seemed perfectly comfortable.

It is wicked hot here this week, and Chris and Ashley had to move the deck furniture back up off the grass. TJ came by today and brought us Famous Dave’s for dinner. YAY!!

Aaron had a wound check appointment with Dr. Lehman this morning. We drove back up to Walter Reed, and Tuesday is clinic day there, so the parking structure was packed. We couldn’t find a spot, so my mom took the car and parked at McDonald’s to wait until we were done. Dr. Lehman was happy to see Aaron doing so well, and after a quick look at his incision and a couple of questions about his pain and movement, we were done. We drove an hour and ten minutes each way for a four minute appointment. GAH.

July 18

We had a visit from Ginny Morton today as the first participant in our meal calendar. Ginny is one of our school librarians at Edison and a dear lady who is always so so kind. We have worked with her for several years and she is an important Edison fixture. She came down and played with Aaron while he showed off his new castle toy. She brought us a truckload of food, which you can see here, and some great book for Aaron. 

Ashley and Chris stained the back deck today, and instead of taking a nap (we don’t quite have that back on schedule yet) Aaron put on jeans and walked down the stairs and said he wasn’t tired. sigh.

Since we’ve been home…an update

Well, it has been a little over a week since we got home from the hospital, and truthfully, today, unless you lifted up Aaron’s shirt and looked at his incision, you would have no idea what he went through. His recovery has been truly amazing.

Our first evening home was nerve wracking. He couldn’t stand up or sit down without help, much less move around the house the way he used to, so he needed help with most things. He couldn’t just flit about from toy to activity to toy like a kid usually does. Every time he wanted to do something different he needed help getting to a standing or sitting position. His back hurt after the drive home, and of course our many stairs were a challenge. I had him sitting on a pillow the first day or so, but he was quick to ditch it. I was so exhausted that night that all I wanted to do was put him to bed by 6pm, but resisted that because we so wanted to get him back on a regular schedule.

We noticed that he had developed a bit of a funny walk, pelvis out, shoulders back and elbows bent, and at first it was cute, but I started to wonder (and worry!) that it might be permanent…it was pretty silly looking, but now it’s already mostly gone :) He lost quite a bit of weight during his 4 days of no eating, and as you can tell, he didn’t have a whole lot of weight to spare. It became so obvious to me once we got home and he was wearing regular clothes. His knees and elbows stuck our so bonily, his shins looked so much thinner, and his eyes looked very sunken. It kind of turned my stomach, but that has gotten much better over the week too.

Here is a picture of our first night home. Aaron wanted to work on a new puzzle that my friend Andrea sent from England…and Aaron wanted to do it four times in a row. I guess we need to get him some more puzzles! You can really see his skinniness here.

Another extraordinary thing about our time post-hospital is that the meal calendar arranged by one of our dear friends began. Kathleen Racek found a website where you can set up a calendar where people can sign up to coordinate meal delivery for someone, and she set up a huge calendar that stretched from July 18th-31st, every day of which has been filled by our incredible friends. We are so full of gratitude for the generosity and thoughtfulness people have shown us throughout this time. We don’t live close to anyone, really, and for the most part, the drive down here is pretty inconvenient for all. It’s been so so helpful to have dinners delivered, and wonderful to get to see our friends.

Here is Aaron enjoying our first dinner home, some chicken enchiladas from the Raceks.

After the first night and following day home, Aaron really started showing how much he WANTS to be healed and back to normal. We were fascinated to watch how he adjusted his movement so that he could both do his normal activities and accommodate his own physical comfort level. He asked people to give him a hand or grabbed onto a piece of furniture when he wanted to get up or down. Each day he did more and more on his own without help. He even picked things up from the floor with his feet, since bending over is the last movement skill to return to normal, and he has developed this very equine way of bending his knees one at a time to get down on the floor. There were clearly some activities that still hurt him, but he was only using Tylenol twice a day and now he isn’t using it at all.

He became very frustrated with the limits we placed on him, coming to ahead with having to hold hands with someone as he went up and down our stairs. We have a long steep staircase up to our second floor, but he did NOT like having a person with him. Finally, after he got scolded for sneakily going up by himself, he cried and told me, “You don’t think I’m a big boy anymore. I can do it myself.” It was so sad, and so hard to make him understand. We felt bad for his frustration and tried to give him lots of other chances to move on his own. It has been inspiring to see how he is visibly better and more able every day. After several days the only thing he needed help with was getting down to a laying down position. Today, there is really nothing that seems to hurt him, although a couple of days ago, he ignored my warning and jumped down from a bed, and it hurt him, which kept him temporarily in check.

As his doctor told us, he was going to get better so quickly and want to resume normal activity, and we were going to need to limit him. If he does something that has a jarring impact on his back, it will hurt him, but he can’t do any damage to his spine. If he does something that hurts, he won’t do it anymore, and that’s that. So far that has all been exactly true.

He had an appointment with Dr. Lehman to check his incision and it was looking great, and he will have another appointment on August 10 to check the progress of the fusion of his spine. Hopefully that will all be fine and we will be going in for monitoring x-rays twice a year during his growing years.

At this point, the residuals seem to be a fussier, sassier, and clingier personality, and a pretty huge fear of falling down. A couple of times he has stumbled and let out big scared screams. It makes sense that he is scared of that, and prior to his amazing job in the hospital and recovery since, he has never been particularly daring or resilient. I hope he will continue to gain confidence as his physical activity increases.

As I close up this post, I want to say on behalf of my family how much we appreciate all the different ways people have reached out to us during this time. We have had phone calls, emails, cards, facebook messages, meals, gifts, from family and friends from all corners and just could not feel more supported. This has truly been the most challenging experience of our lives. Although it has gone very well, it has been a very scary year, culminating in a cumulatively huge amount of anxiety and fear. The communication and help we have received from all of you has been like a blanket of support making all of this so much easier to bear. Thanks so much to all of you, from the bottom of our hearts.

We now continue our regularly (well, kind of…) scheduled blog posts.

7/16-Going home!

Okay, well...the wheels turn slow, as I said, but are driving home with THIS straight-backed boy safe and sound. (he's making a roof because we're coming HOME, his idea.)



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7/15-A great night!

Well, it became clear as the hours passed that we weren't going anywhere last night, and we were totally frustrated, but of course, kids know better than we do. Without really realizing it, Aaron took that extra night as an opportunity to blow us all away with his progress. Firstly, and most importantly, his little intestines finally woke up from sedation and took care of the last bathroom issue that we had been waiting for. The photographic evidence is not suitable for posting or future scrapping, but let's just say it was the final thing that his doctors wanted to see :)
Also, after Chris and NanaGrampy went back to the hotel, I was getting Aaron ready for bed, but in his mind, the night had just begun.

His night nurse, Monica, got permission from his doctors to stop giving him fluids which meant he was no longer hooked up to any tubes. We were pretty excited about this, and to celebrate his independence from the IV stand, Aaron really wanted to get out of his room. We walked down to the playroom and he used the wheelchair in front of him like a walker and it was amazing to see. He wanted to go really fast and push the wheelchair out in front of him (you know like you sometimes do with a shopping cart) but nervous mom put the brakes on those hijinks.

When we got to the playroom he ditched the wheelchair and walked around by holding on to tables. When headed back to our room, his nurse from his first night in peds saw him walking and she was surprised and got emotional. He then did some walking with just holding my hand, which was still too restrictive for him. When we were in front of the nurses station, he stopped and turned to me and said very seriously, "Mommy, stop. You don't have to hold my hand. I can do it, just trust me." The nurses tried to stifle their giggles at his insistent tone and I had to let him try it. You know, Finding Nemo and all.

That's when I took this picture!



By the time Chris came back for his night shift, Aaron was ready to show off. He walked unassisted to his dad and we went back to the playroom for a couple rounds of toy soldier play.

I had a nice night sleeping at the hotel and got an early morning morning report from Chris that an ortho doc came in and said he was going to get us out as fast as possible this morning!


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7/15-still here, still waiting

Well, it's after 6:30 on Friday and I am making this post from the sleeper chair, which means we are still here. Last night I had crap sleep as Aaron woke up quite a few times wanting to roll over in bed or have his back scratched, because the area around his incision has become quite itchy. He also had to get up to go to the bathroom, which is quite a long process with an IV stand.
This morning Aaron got to have a much smaller dressing put on to help with the itchiness and he walked back and forth to the bathroom all before 7 am! Dr. Lehman came in before that and said we should be able to go home today, but then he went into surgery for the whole day, so...I wasn't really holding out too much hope, as I know how slow the wheels can turn.
Aaron has had a great day today. He has walked back and forth to the bathroom at least 4 times and did a little unsupported standing. He is also moving pretty well around his bed.
Here he is all rolled over, he got this way himself!



All the nurses comment about how they can't believe someone so young had this surgery and how fast he is getting better.
Unfortunately, Aaron occasionally complains of a stomach ache because the only thing he has done in the bathroom since SUNDAY MORNING is pee, and I will just leave it at that. His system has been very slowed down by the anesthesia and it hasn't really kicked back into gear yet even though he has been eating real food.
After a great day, Dr. Lehman came to see Aaron right after he had walked, so he was complaining of back pain, and he was also saying his tummy hurt, so Dr. Lehman said, "well no hurry, would hate to send you home only to have you need to come back." giant sigh.
So...we are still here and not looking forward to being here another day when Aaron is really not receiving any care here that we can't give at home. All he's used for pain for the last two days is Tylenol, he's eating and he's walking. He's by no means independent or back to normal, but now we can handle his level of care at home, so we want to get out of here. Here's hoping they come back and see us again tonight, otherwise, my hubby will be taking a turn sleeping here with Aaron since he doesn't have an online class in the morning, and I will get a good solid night's sleep at the hotel for the first time.
Here is Aaron's oatmeal and yogurt breakfast!


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7/14-REALLY hard work and even more success!

Well yesterday we did even more moving around and Aaron did a great job even though it was hard on him. He is starting to be able to move around in his bed, like shift to make himself comfortable. He got REALLY good sleep last night too.
He got his catheter out near the end of the day, which is pretty huge, because now he has to make it to the bathroom to pee. A physical therapist finally came to see us and she ended up doing less with us than we did on our own yesterday! Aaron did sit at the edge of his bed for 15 minutes without help so that was huge.
Aaron's nurse worked hard for us today chasing down ortho doctors to give us permission to move ahead...which is why we got not only the catheter came out, but also the drain from his incision. That meant that his dressing had to be changed and lots of tape stuff had to be taken off, which, according to Aaron's screams was the worst pain on earth. He told me during his dressing change that he needed the police. :) He also got to have an IV line on his hand taken out so that he can start using his hand better. He still has one line in his arm for fluids, and hopefully once he is eating more the fluids can stop.
Unfortunately his blood counts continued to come back a little low so he had to have a new blood draw and get stuck again. After they did that, his blood counts came back normal. Can't say I'm sorry I was at the hotel showering for that. I also walked myself over to Fuddruckers during my break for a giant burger. It was awesome.
The most fun today was when Aaron got out of bed to get in the tiny wheelchair and play with his new remote control Mater all over the peds hallways, and even outside in the courtyard!







Dr. Lehman found us while we were playing and told us he thinks Aaron will be able to go home on Friday!!




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7/13-A successful day of hard work

I had this post all ready to go yesterday but my phone crashed and I had to restore it. Just what we needed! Anyway, here's the recap of yesterday and I will be back tonight when I am tucked into my cozy sleeping chair to do today's update.

Aaron got a lot of sleep overnight, and I got some, but I wake up when his monitor or IV beeps and every time they come in to check him. This was his first day of really hard physical therapy, which we undertook ourselves since the real PTs didn't come.
Aaron made it to the edge of the bed, sat there with a lot of assistance and then stood up on the floor. The exertion and pain took a toll on him. I got him up in a chair with me and he sat forward resting his chin on a table in front of us for an hour, which took a toll on me! He actually fell asleep like that for a little while.
Later after Chris and NanaGrampy arrived we did some more work. Dr. Lehman was insistent that we get him up and walking and we didn't want to lose a day just because no PT came to see us. We got him out of bed again, standing briefly and then into a kids size wheel chair to make a trip down to the playroom, where he has wanted to go since he got out of surgery.
When we got down there, he took two steps to get out of his wheelchair. Sat in a regular chair for about 30 minutes and then took two steps to get back into the chair. This was all very heavily assisted, but we were really proud of his progress. The other great development is that early in the evening Aaron was allowed to advance beyond ice chips. He had a purple Popsicle and a little applesauce and held it down.
I have to admit that the stress finally got to me today. I know Aaron is doing so much better everyday, but this recovery process is emotionally and physically exhausting for all of us. I am glad i was able to hold it together for so long, especially on surgery day, but today it just seemed too overwhelming. As my friend Andrea said, now that the scary part is over as far as we are concerned (the surgery) the scary part for Aaron (recovery and pain) is just beginning. All the movement hurts him so so badly.
I went back to the hotel for a break in the middle of the day for a hot lunch, hot tea, a hot shower and a long nap before heading back to take my nighttime shift.
Here's what Aaron was looking like on the 13th...you gotta smile at that!




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Aarons spine, before and after

Here is the model of the whole thing, the before image made from his CT.



And here are two side views that show you his hemi-vertebrae. Look for the little ones that aren't the right shape; they're too small. See the one near the bottom, 4th from the bottom?




And from the other side, count three normal vertebrae down from the top and right below it is the second hemi-vertebrae.




And HERE is what Aaron's spine looks like now! See his pins and rods? And look at that straight spine!!



Aaron was responsive the whole time and he did need a small blood transfusion. We are waiting to be called back to see Aaron in the pediatric ICU.


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A gift

The pediatric social worker came to see Aaron when he was really upset and getting some of his lines taken out (which hurt him a bit), and asked if she could bring him something to cheer him up and distract him. She brought him a big cool remote control Mater and a three pack of cars. He has not let go of those cars since.



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Little guy

Looking much better





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Checked in to the peds ward

Last night was pretty long, but Aaron and I got some good chunks of sleep. He has done well today and got to be moved out of the PICU and up onto the Pediatric Ward into his own room rather than his own curtained partition. It will be more comfortable for all of us. He has had a tummy ache and has gotten puffy today, but every doctor has been very happy with his progress and impressed with his behavior. He is being a really good boy and his body has been through a lot. He has been much more aware today, but he is also more upset and scared. Like my friend Andrea said, the scary part for us parents (the surgery) has passed, and the scary part for him (the recovery and pain) has just begun.
Goals for tonight:
-hold down some ice chips (wasn't successful at that earlier today, his tummy wasn't ready)
-get his intestines moving so we know he is getting better and to give him some more comfort.
-sit up, dangle his legs over the side and take a few steps. His surgeon says it's time, that's how he gets better.



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Late night update

Well, it's our first night in the hospital and it's got to get easier from here! Aaron has been doing well. He is constantly monitored in every way and although he is in a lot of pain, he is doing a great job communicating. Chris and Ashley stayed with him for a shift while I ate with my parents and sister and at about 8 I got back here to hunker down for the night in a super comfortable (GIANT WINK) sleeper chair. I got in a good 45 minutes of sleep and then another 30 later, which is a good start because I wasn't able to nap at all during the day. Aaron is asleep 90% of the time with intermittent wakeups to say his back or tummy hurts or to tell me he wants to go home or just make sure I am here.
Goals for overnight/tomorrow morning: get him to where he can have something to drink, go longer between morphine doses, and get his dressing changed by his surgeon. Goodnight!


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Done at 1:10!!

At about 1:10, we were told that they are all done with Aaron! Everything went great and they are closing him up now.


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Surgery has started!

At 9:04 we got an update that they had just started the procedure and Aaron was doing great. At 10:05 they let us know that they just started putting in the screws and he is still doing great.


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The waiting begins.

Its 7:54 and Aaron has been taken back for surgery. We arrived here at 5 and the whole check in process went very smoothly. Once he got changed into his hospital jammies he started to get nervous but he held on tight to his dad. We got brought down to the surgical floor and everyone, me, Chris, NanaGrampy and Auntie Kelly, all got to sit with him while nurses and anesthesiologists came and talked to us. It was great to have everybody in there together, especially when Aaron was getting a little more fussy. He made sure to tell everyone he didn't want ANY shots!!
And that wish was granted, just as I was reassured during pre-op. He was given an oral sedative and eventually started talking slowly and getting heavy eyes. Once again, as is always the case here, everyone that talked to us and to Aaron was fantastic. When it was time for him to get taken back, his anesthesiologists picked him up and carried him out instead of wheeling the bed out and Aaron was still awake but offered no resistance. There was no crying or struggling and he seemed to have no anxiety. All my efforts to steel my nerves and not cry in front of him this morning were effective. :)

Now we are all set up in the waiting room and Chris, Dad and Kelly went to get some coffee and breakfast. So now we have hours of waiting, and I need to prepare myself for how he will look when he comes out, which we have been warned about. We will update as we get info.



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Location:Walter Reed Army Medical Center

Surgery Day!

Well, we were up at 4 to head to the hospital after driving to Silver Spring yesterday. We all had a great dinner and hung out a bit before trying to get some rest. Sleeping with Aaron makes that darn near impossible but I got good solid sleep from 1-3:30 this morning O_o
Updates to come...Aaron is in good spirits so far!
Here's my two super heroes as we head to the hospital.



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July 9

Today we are picking up NanaGrampy from the airport, but before that, we are trying to cram in a little more pre-surgery fun. We went to a Rocknoceros concert with Colleen and Scott and Cameron, and then the kids ran around the park a bit before heading back to Col’s house for lunch and a little front yard T-ball. They love each other and have so much fun running around crazy together.

All I can say is…we have more pictures for their wedding invitation.

 

When we got home from picking up NanaGrampy and having dinner, Grampy unloaded some surprises from his luggage.

He brought Chris SIX JARS of the delicious Knott’s jelly that we can’t get in stores here…

and brought Aaron this AWESOME Buzz arm with nightvision :)