thursday

Andy’s coming home tomorrow!!!!

WooHoo! It took literally all day to get them to commit to that, but he is going to be home tomorrow! He will do therapy till 2pm then we will do discharge, so who knows when we will actually get home, but he will be home tomorrow! I’m so excited! I’m nervous but it will be good to have him home. Let’s start the craziness! lol  His welcome home party is next week Saturday, the 13th starting at 630-whenever. It will be very casual, open house style-if you want to, bring a snack to share. I can’t wait!

So today-he is feeling better and better every day. At lunch while he was eating he was starting to feel nauseas and then Dr. Reyser came in to talk to us about the nausea. Right in the middle of that conversation I had a breakthrough-Andy has never been able to stand having pressure on his stomach. It has always made him feel sick. ie-when we cuddle I can’t have my arm laying across his stomach. So why have we not thought about this-his tlso puts constant pressure on his stomach! So I mentioned that and we tried it out. Today when he was starting to feel sick he would pull out on the tlso(that is the back brace) so there wasn’t so much pressure and he would feel better pretty fast. Yay! such a simple solution to a huge problem.

He hasn’t had the chest pain in a few days. They are weaning him off the oxycotin and switching to Loratab. He didn’t take any loratab today and wasn’t needing it. I’m sure he still has some oxy in his system. We are telling him there is a difference between tough and stupid. lol He seems to be doing ok, but he just needs to not be suffering through the pain just to be mr. tough guy who isn’t taking any medicine. He is still on 2 nerve pain medicines but he isn’t taking very much pain medicine-but he is feeling fine.

For OT we went on a walk down to a market and bought something to cook in the oven. He had to open the freezer and get it out and carry it and everything. Just working on figuring out how to do regular stuff in a wheelchair. (tip-have a basket on your lap to carry stuff in) Then we walked back. It’s uphill and he was pushing hard. Josh, the OT sings really well and started cheesily singing something motivational. Well, normally when Josh sings andy, uh, rubs his nipple-like he enjoys when Josh sings-just a joke. Well, andy is pushing hard up this hill and Josh starts singing, so without even thinking Andy goes to rub his nipple and lets go of one side of the wheelchair and his chair starts going downhill. It was so funny! We were laughing so hard!

Another funny story- we were preheating the oven and Josh was wanting to do a run through to practice before the oven got too hot. Andy was positioned right next to the oven, Josh opens it a bit and the hot air comes out. Andy slams the door shut and says frustatedly “What are you doing?!? I’m wearing black!” like if you are outside wearing black you get more heat from the sun….We laughed at him forever over that. It was soooo funny! I’m still laughing! While it was baking I changed andy’s pants and put on his black shorts just to torture him. lol we have so much fun. With josh the joke is ‘awkward moments with andy’ (Josh sings that) Andy is ‘inappropriate’ and josh doesn’t enjoy it as much as others so there are many awkward moments. (but it’s funny-we all are laughing, not uncomfortable). While we were eating our chicken enchiladas Andy made Josh was singing while another patient was playing the piano. once he looked over and Andy was rubbing his nipple and looking sexy so Josh cracked up and started singing ‘another awkward moment with andy’ to the tune of the song. It was hilarious!

Dr. Bauman came in to look at the wound on his back. he checked to see if it ‘communicated’ with the screws or bones and it doesn’t-that’s really good. but he did seem a bit concerned about it. He said that the placement and size make it so that it will take quite awhile to heal. He even said that his bones will probably heal before that sore does! So-we talked to him for quite awhile about the sore and the 2 bumps causing him so much pain. In the end he authorized PT(but they are going to defer to the tlso maker) to cut out a circle or arch in the back bottom of the tlso to take the pressure off that area. That’s going to be pretty cool. Since the support he needs is middle back(L2/L1) they can cut out that lower back part. That will help him so much. Right now when he lays down we have to pull that tlso off as fast as we can because it just squeezes the skin between the tlso and the screws in his back. I can only imagine how painful that would be. They haven’t cut that out, but the nurse felt like since Dr. Bauman ordered it that it would happen pretty fast, probably today-so maybe it will happen tomorrow.

We always have so much fun up there. I’m so excited for him to come home, but I know we are going to miss all the great people and all the fun we have there. Most everyday we are just laughing through every therapy. Love it.  Now we get to the hard part. The part where I can’t help him every moment that he needs and the part where the kids really have a hard time because Daddy can’t help them like they want, or play with them like they want. But we lose the hard parts of them being at babysitters all the time and not getting anything done that I need. Maybe it will all even out. tomorrow night Andy will be home! Yay!