Catching Up

Sorry I have been away from the blog! We had family in town, which was a huge blessing. Beau has been needing some extra TLC during his recovery from surgery, so there just hasn't been much computer time. When Beau is awake I'm with him and when he is asleep I am showering, catching up on housework, sleeping, etc. :) So, if you have called or emailed in the last 2 weeks and I haven't responded, please forgive me.

Ok...where were we...

About 2 weeks ago, Beau had his surgery. The first week or so after surgery Beau was definitely not himself, but we made it and we are so glad to have it behind us! I must say that it is crazy how different medicines can affect your body! I am thrilled to live in a time with excellent medicine, but sometimes the side effects are not great. For example, Beau was on ditropan for about 6 days. This medicine was to prevent bladder spasms. The stint that is in his ureter touches his bladder and can cause irritation and then bladder spasms. Apparently these are very painful, so the medicine was to prevent it. Unfortunately, the medicine made Beau super jumpy and agitated. He would scratch at his face and sort of twitch after taking the medicine. It was so sad! Thankfully we were able to stop giving him ditropan once the catheter was removed. The doctor and nurse both explained that Beau could still have bladder spasms for the next few weeks while the stint is in place, so we will just watch for signs of that. We can give him the ditropan as needed if he seems to have painful bladder spasms. I would never want him to be in pain.

He was also on tylenol with codeine. This had the opposite effect on Beau. As soon as he had the tylenol he was out! He had lots of snuggle time with dad when he was taking this.

Six days after the surgery we went to the doctor's office to have the catheter removed. The doctor said everything was healing well! Yippee!!

Beau is now back to his normal, playful self! There is still some sticky residue left from all of the bandages but I'm afraid to scrub too hard near his incision. Ha! Ha! Each night during bath I just give it a good wash with the soapy washcloth and hope that it will all be gone soon.

Beau's 2nd surgery is scheduled for December 14th. His finalization day is December 12th, so that will be a busy week!

I will leave you with a few pictures to recap the last 2 weeks:

Beau loved playing with the toys at the children's hospital when we first arrived!

We got our discharge orders the afternoon following surgery. Our 2 doctors (Dr. Edwin Smith and his resident...I know his resident has a name, but I just can't remember it) were so kind to us.

Beau on pain meds = Beau asleep

Sorry mom, but I'm just too tired to eat dinner!

Beau loves helping dad work at the computer!

Time to rest!

Beau waving to the camera when we went to get the catheter removed! Yay! That was a great day! If you have the option, don't ever be responsible for a catheter at home! I know there are worse things, but it was pretty gross! I really can't complain though because Raleigh and his mom did all of the hard work! I just snuggled on Beau when each diaper change was finished!

After our visit to the doctor, we went to Cracker Barrel to celebrate! Yippee!

This picture is from today! Beau loves helping organize the silverware in the dishwasher!

Beau is giving the camera a squishy face!