George's Surgery: Day 4

Nights have gotten better with more sleeping. Still not a full night’s rest, which is almost impossible to do in a hospital with vitals constantly being checked. Aaron came by early in the morning and Nurse Monica said it was time to get George out of bed and get him to start walking again. I’ve been too scared to hold him myself, for fear of injuring him, but Aaron seems to have no problem with it. So I stood by with the camera and Aaron and Nurse Monica got George out of bed and ready for some walking. This did not go well, as George’s legs were wobbly. He reminded me a lot of Bambi learning to walk for the first time. George couldn’t even hold himself up much less take a step on his own. And he was absolutely miserable being out of bed. He spent most of the time crying and we all finally just gave up and put him back in bed.



After his walking attempt, it was time to remove a drainage tube! He also got a new IV started in his hand because the old one was getting irritated. The best thing that happened was that George got his central line in his neck removed!!!! This meant that George got to have his arm restraints taken off and could give his teddy bear a great big hug. As you can see, it wasn’t very much fun for him to get these things removed, and he did a lot of crying and straining and worked up quite a sweat. But he does look content now holding his teddy bear and being able to lie on his side.

He was quite pouty for the rest of the morning. Too much going on, I suppose.

We got a new nurse in the afternoon, named Elise and she had a wonderful idea of taking George on a wagon ride around the PICU. I had the task of lifting him out of bed and putting him in the wagon. I was so nervous about it and it was the first time I held him in days. It was special, yet scary for me.

 

George was not too happy about being taken out of his bed and being put in the wagon. He did not know what was about to happen. But once the wagon started moving, you could see him just begin to relax. He sure was a cute little guy! After doing a couple of laps around the PICU, the nurse practitioner suggested that we take him around the rest of the children’s hospital. So off we went!

 

 

With the children’s hospital still being very new, the halls and waiting areas were very quiet. We stopped by a fish tank just outside the special care nursery. It was here that Nurse Elise felt we should try to get George to walk again. George was not happy about this but he did take a few steps with some assistance. He wanted to get back in the wagon so we made him walk to the wagon.

Once back in the wagon, he decided to be pouty again. But the rest of us were very happy with his accomplishment. Here he is with Nurse Elise.

To cheer him again, we went downstairs to the lobby to check out the “wall”. He enjoyed popping all of the bubbles but it was time to head back up to the PICU.

It was time to put him back in his bed and then he spent the rest of the evening entertaining us! He began making his big smiles again, showing lots of teeth as he was playing with his Papa. He also enjoyed some graham crackers and some banana. I was so happy that he was finally eating real food again!