Update after Surgery

Over the last few days we have gone through a lot getting Davin home and trying to take care of him while he is still unable to walk very well and healing from surgery. We have been doing the catheters every morning and evening. We soon realized that three times a day is hard to fit in especially when Chad is at work and I can't do it all by myself. But the good news is that most of the time Davin doesn't have anything coming out, which means that he is emptying his bladder all by himself.

After about 10 days we stopped doing the catheter and the doctor said that he didn't need to be seen and that everything should be good. Yay!

The bad news is that Davin's foot is hurting a lot. We have given him some nerve medicine to help with the pain but it doesn't always work. When it starts to hurt he just screams and crys and we don't really know how to help him. The best thing we have found with the help of Grandma Cloward was to put a hot pad on it. That seems to help it feel better and he can get some relief until we can give him more med.

Another bad thing is that the med. for his foot is making him restless. He can't sleep and he is constantly moving. He can't hold still even for a few min. He also has twitches in his leg every once in a while that don't help him when he is trying to calm down and go to bed.

Davin got his brace for his foot and wore it for two days and then he noticed a huge blister on his ankle. We went to the doctor and they tested it to make sure it wasn't an infection from the hospital. The test came back negative so that was good and we decided it was from his brace rubbing on his ankle. The doctor told us not to wear the brace until it got better which took forever!

 

Davin also started physical therapy to help him learn how to walk with his hurt foot and help him get his muscle strength back from surgery. We go once a week and it has really helped him to get better at walking. We also ordered a new brace that is molded to his foot and not just a standard one. It is a lot nicer and Davin even got to choose the color and pattern on the velcro straps. Now the hard part is finding a shoe that will fit his brace. We finally found some shoes at Shoe Carnival and we bought him two sizes of shoe. One for his normal foot and the other for his brace. It is a little funny to look at them side by side but at least now he can wear his brace when we go out.

 

From the physical therapy we have learned that Davin can't push his foot down or side to side or lift it up. He can move his toes just slightly (you have to really watch for it) but that is it. We don't know if his nerve in his foot is damaged or just pinched or swollen from the surgery. The doctors told us that it might take 6 months to a year to see any improvement in his foot. Hopefully it won't be too long before we see somthing. :)

Coming home

Davin has had a hard time walking so they decided to have a physical therapist come visit him and see what they thought was wrong and what to do about it. Monday morning Stephanie came and played some games with him and had him walk a long ways to watch what he was doing while he was walking. His right foot is still really swollen and sore and he isn't able to move his ankle. She said that it looks like he will need to wear a brace until he gets movement back in his foot so that he stops tripping over it.

 

When we went down to fit his brace he was also able to be unhooked from his IV fluid. The nurse told him that he was doing a good job drinking his water and that if he continued drinking enough that she wouldn't have to hook up the tubes again. That was really exciting for Davin and he was able to go without his fluids the rest of the time we were at the hospital.

 

We were able to go down to the playroom and Davin had a ton of fun. He painted a few wooden cars and dinos and he got to play with doctor stuff. He also crawled around on the floor and made picnics for us to eat. It was really nice to watch him play after all the days of him just sitting in bed.

 

 

 A lady from music therapy also came and hung out with Davin for a while. She was really nice and Davin had a lot of fun playing all of the drums and shaking the instraments. He was even able to play the guitar a little bit with a big pick. It was also fun because she asked Davin what his favorite song was and he told her it was Josh Groban You Raise Me Up. It took a min to think of the words but she played a little for him. 

 

 

Tuesday morning Chad came up to the hospital and was taught how to do the catheter and was surprised at how much easier it was then he was expecting. Davin doesn't like it but he is a brave little boy and understands that there are some things we have to do to help him get better. He also got to go down and play with Stephanie again and they did some fun things. They built towers with cardboard boxes and swung on a big swing and knocked them over. Davin's favorite part was building the towers and it was hard to talk him into doing other things.

 

I think Davin's favorite part of the stay at the hospital was playing plants vs zombies with his dad. That was one of the biggest motivators in getting him out of bed and walking a little bit. Davin liked sitting next to Chad and watched as he completed all the levels. I think they even beat the whole game while they were there.

 

In the middle of the day we got the ok from the surgeon that we could go home if we felt comfortable taking care of Davin at home. Chad and I were really excited about this and did all we could to get out of there. We were all packed and ready to leave and just waiting on the nurses when it looked like we weren't going to be able to go. We were really mad and assured the nurses that we had done everything that we needed to do and that everyone had said we could go. They finally figured it all out and we finished all the paperwork and were able to leave.

On the way home we met Grandpa Cloward, Tyson and Holly at the fish store. Grandpa, Tyson, and Dallin had worked all weekend on a surprise for Davin. Grandpa found someone who had a saltwater fish tank setup that they were getting rid of. It was a lot of hard work cleaning it up but they worked hard and set it up in our front room for Davin. When we got to the fish store Grandpa told Davin that he needed help picking out a new fish to put in his fish tank. Little did Davin know that this fish was actually going to stay at his house in his new tank. When we got home Chad brought Davin in the front door and showed him the tank. He had fun looking at it and watching Grandpa and Daddy put the fish in.

 

When we got home we have a very excited little brother. Liam had been waiting for his brother and was so excited. He was bouncing all over the place and running around. He loves his brother so much and had missed Davin so much. He was very concerned about Davin and helped take care of him anyway he could. Liam grabbed blankets and toys for Davin and did it all with a huge smile on his face. We were all very excited to be home and together!