Alex's hospital stay - Day 3

Thank you again for all the love and support we have received.  It has really touched our hearts.

Today is day three.  Alex was able to eat five bites of pancake this morning.  I was so proud of him.  He still doesn’t have an appetite.  He is receiving fluids via IV, but we are still trying to have him eat and drink.  Monday he was only allowed to have clear liquids, yesterday liquids and today soft food.  The highlight of my day yesterday was when I secretly asked a family friend to feed him some jello because I knew he wouldn’t eat it if I asked him.  Sure enough he ate the whole thing.  Yeah!!

Today he had his epidural removed.  He is tolerating the Loritab which is a blessing.  It makes his dad so sick so we are glad Alex can take it.  As we speak he is having his first shower.  They don’t let you shower with the epidural due to the risk of infection. 

Alex has to be out of bed for 360 minutes today.  He is very tired once he does his time.  He and his dad will enjoy playing video games a little again today and then we will all go for another walk. 

I am so proud of how well he is doing.  He is getting himself up and down more by himself.  He’s tough and doesn’t complain much.  It is so sad to see when he has to cough.  It really hurts him.  He has a breathing machine he has to blow in and make it rise.  It looks so easy so I decided to try it.  It is actually pretty hard and I can’t get it much higher than he can. 

The doctors and nurses are being great and really monitoring his heart.  So far everything looks great.  It gives us great peace of mind.  They did an EKG today and it all seems fine.  His heart rate does lower at times when he is resting but we have been told that it is typical with healthy teenage boys.  We do have appointments for our entire family to see cardiologists the first week of July.  We will be praying for good results.  I received Ryan’s genetic test results today and they are inconclusive.  There is still so much research that needs to be done so they do not have any answers for us.  They are going to keep the DNA sample for us and it can be retested at any time if new information becomes available.

We got to see Alex’s incision site.  We weren’t prepared for what it would look like.  It is at least 4 inches long and I counted at least 17 staples.  Yes, staples.  Poor guy.  He isn’t too thrilled to have it and I did reassure him the scar would heal less noticeably.  We joke with him that we will be able to play tic- tac- toe on him stomach.  I did ask if this surgery was similar to a C-section.  I was told it is much worse.  It is much more painful and takes longer to heal because stomach muscles are cut into.  You don’t realize how much you use these muscles until they become injured.  They are used to move, blow your nose, laugh, cough and about everything else.  He will be pretty sore for a while and the doctor said everything won’t be completely healed for about 6 months.  Wow.

Thank you again for all your prayers and concern.  I know we are once again being lifted through this trial because of all the prayers and love.  We will continue to show faith and know that we can make it through anything that is thrown our way- we do hope we can get a break for a little bit.  May Heavenly Father continue to bless us all.

Love,  Catherine and Mike