Day 123: A Good Day of Healing

Duplicated on our CaringBridge site for permanent record here.

First Day of Spring, March 20, 2021, written by Mama

123 days in the hospital: 63 in PICU, 28 in the Oncology ward, 15 at In-Patient Rehab, and 17 back in the Oncology ward.

Today was a good day of healing! Thomas is more than 24 hours post-op and only needed PRN pain medication once immediately in recovery. His epidural is covering the pain perfectly so far and the plan is to keep it in place for three days total. 

The Anesthesiologist came by and approved Thomas to sit up almost fully and to sleep on either side. This allows him to play better in his bed than when he was lying mostly flat.

Knowing that Thomas cannot currently go to the Play Room, Child Life therapist Mr. S---- brought him three very generous gifts. I was happy for Thomas to receive these gifts to entertain him while he is in bed for three days.

I assumed that children's hospitals must have big budgets for toys. Nope: virtually all toys, including all the ones used for therapeutic purposes in Rehab, are donated by kind people (mostly plain old folk, not corporations). It's a great idea to do a toy drive for a children's hospital, and especially if you can called ahead and ask the Child Life and Rehab departments what would be useful to them. Chris and I are learning so many little ways that we can help in the future when we are on the other side of our journey.

This afternoon, Thomas enjoyed a social visit of at least 20 minutes from Dr. G----- who took care of him in PICU, the time we refer to as "when you were mostly sleeping." Thomas had drawn him a card of a camel and a heart and Dr. G---- promised to hang it up at home.

Today is our darling Margaret's tenth birthday, so the family cleaned up the house (a gift to Mama!) and then went for a hike to Big Bear Falls at South Mountain. 

They enjoyed a barbecue dinner (thanks to a generous gift certificate from friends) before eating the low-sugar cake Margaret requested "so I can share a piece with Thomas." The girls made it with almond flower and low sugar and decorated it with strawberries. Flowers from Margaret's sweet aunt and uncle decorated the table. 

Thomas and I participated in watching Margaret open her gifts over video call. 

I even captured a treasured video clip of Thomas singing Happy Birthday! CLICK HERE for video!

Precious Thomas is still talking my ear off. Even though I sat next to him all day, we played with plastic dinosaurs, we played Play-Doh, we colored, we built with bristle blocks, we watched two movies together, and we talked about everything, this little boy is still talking. I told him that I had a computer task to do right now so I was going to let him watch Mr. Rogers . . . but he is still keeping up constant conversation while I write this blog post! It is the most darling thing and I am not annoyed.