Simulation over and real life begins

Two days of pretending couldn't have prepared me for what I was going to experience today. Day 2 post operation. Jayen has begun swelling on the right side of his face. He doesn't really want to get out of bed much at all. Which is a sigh of relief, but worries me too. Jayen went from playing basketball for two days straight to wanting to sit and color for hours on end. BUT only with the black crayon. He was very obsessive about it. He was the only one allowed to use it. He would often put it down then pick it immediately back up. When he wasn't coloring, he was obsessive about picking his nose. There was never anything he got out of the picking extravaganza but he continued for hours on end until mommy put a stop to it because he was chaffing the side of his nose.



 



 



We had our first dressing change today too. There was so much I wish I could forget from that event. The hospital just underwent a renovation and the epilepsy unit moved to its current location. With this moves comes a lot of changes. Not only for us, but for the hospital staff as well. Jayen is the first patient with grids in over a year. (I didn't know that coming into this, in fact I was told we couldn't get in any earlier because there were others in front of us.) Since he is the first in the new unit, he has been the guinea pig for the new employees. Jayen always seems to have a crowd watching every time we do something but I don't feel like everyone is there to take care of him and watch over him. We have had some AMAZING nurses that I feel were sent to us for a reason. Zaundra who has never met, but has to be a twin to my best friend Renee Loftus, was exactly what we needed the first day after surgery. She looked like Renee, talked like Renee, joked like Renee, and loved Jayen like Renee. I really do think she was sent to us to help us get through that first night. We were able to get through the second night, after asking for a nursing change, with the help of Dana. She was even there for us when Jayen woke up in the middle of the night screaming. We narrowed it down to him holding his bladder and bowels for too long. She so kindly gave him a suppository and made him laugh and smile through all the lovely sounds his booty was making while his tummy was feeling better. Jayen peed so much I don't think she was able to put all of it in the collection to measure it out. We will get through this, but it will surely require a lot of tears!