9 days in the hospital

 Sunday, June 17
After surgery we were taken the room on floor 7 where Avery would spend the next 9 days.  The first day and night he would get terrible leg cramps in his left leg and would cry in pain.  That was really hard to watch, as we couldnt do anything about it.  My girls were still at my friend Andrea's house and we had nothing with us (clothes, hygiene stuff, toys and blankets for Avery, etc...).  So while Adam stayed at the hospital, I went and picked the girls up and we spent the night at home.  It was hard leaving him, but Adam never left his side.  Coming home was emotional.  I felt like I was going to a place where a tragic crime happened.  It was eery I guess.  I didn't even turn my head to look at the side of the house where the accident happened.  I had tunnel vision to the door.  Once inside, I just could not stop thinking about my boy.  Stuff he did just this morning still laying on the floor... memories of him with normal feet and no pain, flooding to me.  Everytime I stepped into his room to grab his stuff, I would feel total despair and had to remind myself that he was alive because the pain would not go away.  Ally helped me pack up our stuff and we went to bed.  Here's my precious Ally sleeping.  Love her.

Monday, June 18
The girls and I woke up very early to go to the hospital.  I could not believe how emotional I felt this morning.  It's like I woke up expecting it all to be a dream, and when I realized it wasn't, it was like I was being told all over again about the accident.  I got into the shower and started sobbing.  Ally was in the bathroom also, and said, "mom, are you ok?"  I know she's only 9, but the words "I just cannot believe this is real" escaped my mouth.  After getting everything loaded into the vehicle, the girls and I headed to Grand Rapids.  Adam's mom had driven up last night and was already at the hospital when we got there.  Avery had cried before he went into surgery yesterday when he asked about his sisters, so he was very happy to see them!  We stayed all day, and I was surprised that Adria was so good.  She played with her ponies and was pretty content the whole time.  Later that evening, my mother in law took the girls back to our house and Adam and I stayed at the hospital.

Tuesday, June 19
Today physical therapy came in and tried to get Avery moving a little bit.  He wouldn't have anything to do with it.  Would just cry and whine the entire time.  His spirits seemed a little better when there were no hospital workers in the room.  He was upset that his sister's had left though.

Wednesday, June 20
I left early in the morning because I had to work :(  Avery was going to go into surgery around 7 am to see how the wounds were doing and possibly do the skin graft and do anything else they needed to to his foot.  They ended up being able to do the skin graft on his thigh, but unfortunately had to have a little more of his foot cut back.  It just wasn't setting up like the doctors wanted it to.  I checked in often with Adam to see how he was doing.  He wasn't doing well.  Vomiting all day, depressed, and would not eat.  On top of it, he hadn't had a bowel movement in 4 days so they had to give him suppositories.  After he was able to go, you could tell he felt much better.

June 21-24

I brought the girls up on Friday morning to spend the day with Avery.  Adam went to work for the first time.  We took walks around the hospital and Avery seemed to really like that.  We went outside, to the library, to the children's play area, etc... He also had a Wii in his room.  He also now has a toy store in his bedroom with all the gifts from people!  He actually once said, "Mom, I don't want anymore presents."  What kid says that?!  His emotions were up and down within these days.  He would be really happy at times, but then he would switch to being really moody and sad.  He still would not budge for physical therapy and it was really frustrating to me.  I was worried he would become weak or get bed sores or something.  I was worried about how he would be at home.

Monday, June 25
Avery had another surgery in the morning to see how the skin graft was taking and how the foot was scabbing over.  The skin graft took 100%!  The foot is scabbing over just how they like it to be.  The surgeon said that we should be able to go home today!  I'm feeling mixed emotions about this.  Mainly because Avery wakes up every night drenched in sweat and sobbing.  He wouldnt ever tell us what was wrong, but we assumed it was pain so we had the nurse give him a shot of morphine.  The only thing that would calm him down was if I layed in bed next to him and sang the kids favorite song "5 little raindrops."  I was scared he would wake up at home and we wouldnt be able to control his pain.  The second reason is his blood pressure was running high.  A 5 year olds blood pressure should not be high.  It concerned me.

After what seemed like forever to get our discharge papers, and medical equipment (wheelchair and walker) we were on our way home!  Avery seemed really happy to be in the van and kept saying, "this is fun!"  He fell asleep on the way.  When we got home, it was like a total transformation.  He immediately wanted "real" clothes and underwear on, and wanted to sit on the couch.  He would do anything.we.asked.him.to.do.  It was amazing.  He would hop on one foot, push his wheelchair, roll over, go potty standing up (we had to use a urinal the whole time at the hospital), and was just very determined!

He slept great.  Did not wake up once, and was not in the pain even in the morning!  Im just so impressed with my little boy!