1 week after surgery, a follow up

The last time I did a full post Alvin was in ICU and I was updating facebook/twitter with updates and pictures as I could.

Alvin met his neuro surgeon around 8am Saturday morning in the ICU. She took a look at him and his overnight stats and said it was time he be moved out of ICU and down to the surgical unit. She wanted to try and get a CT scan of his head but was unsure if it was going to be able to happen on a weekend.

Sleeping in the ICU

Wanting to sit up and play a little on the tablet in the ICU

About an hour later we were on our way down to the regular pediatric surgery floor. Once there he actually wanted to get up and go take a quick walk around the unit then headed back to his room and ate a good breakfast. W and Elliot came to visit shortly after and after a dose of tylenol and some lunch Alvin settled down for a nap and they left. After a good 3 hour nap he got up and was ready to go. He took a quick walk down to the play area to get some ice then back to his room. At this point he started getting really restless. Later that night after he ate dinner the nurse agreed to just do a saline lock on his IV and was allowed to go take a walk down to the first floor. He was even allowed to sleep without it and only had a little bit of tylenol before bed.

In the surgical unit. He was just happy to be allowed to sit up in a chair.

Breakfast time

Good view of his incision

First look at his incision after being unhooked for a little while.

PLay room with puzzles and cars

Sunday morning he was awake around 0430 when they last took vitals. After some time watching cartoons and netflix we went to go walk the halls again. During one of our many laps we ran into his surgeon who said he was ready to go home. The CT scan wasn't going to happen that day and she honestly wasn't concerned due to the way his incision site looked and how well he was eating and drinking. So after all the paperwork was signed and discharge instructions given we were headed home.

Playing Mickey Mouse Club House games on the public computer in the playroom.

Leaving the hospital. As he says every time he leaves "Bye children friends"

The first stop before home though was to the mall. Since his incision was so big and nasty looking we wanted to get him a new hat. So in the Mariner's store he picked out a new hat that he could wear to school. After the Mariner's store we headed over to the Disney store. Seriously I was completely fine with him getting a new car after all he went through.

At home the kids rested and soon Alvin was asking to go play in the sun. We agreed and headed to a small park. The entire time there we were watching him like a hawk but from his actions you could never have known what he just went though. That night though we shaved his head. It was just easier to keep the entire area clean with everything shaved off. He hated it but like a good dad W shaved his too  and that seemed to make him feel a little better.

New hair cut

The rest of the week was back to normal. Monday he went to school and had no issues. We went outside to parks during the week and he acted fine while I watched him like a hawk to be sure he didn't do anything too bad. All week we kept a careful watch on his incision and did our best to too it clean and dry at all times. He kept asking to go to gymnastics but wasn't able to due to needing to wait a week.

Playing at home as normal.

5 days post surgery.

Swinging at the park

So what now? Now we go on as normal. He has an incision check in a couple of weeks to be sure things are all healing correctly. Alvin has been in very little pain and only had tylenol a few times for mild discomfort in his head. He then goes back for a followup MRI and meeting with his surgeon in July. This is mainly to check to be sure his cerebral spinal fluid is draining as planned and that there are no other buildups. Also we will be checking the cyst again to see if there were any changes in it.

The other big question is since the pressures in his brain have gone down have we seen anything different. The answer is yes and no. Overall he is still the same kid. He has his social awkwardness and most everything else. The only thing we have seen a slight improvement in is his speech. He is slowly starting to speak a little more clearly and string a few more words together. We are of course thrilled with the progress but are cautiously optomistic as to what else could happen during his recovery period.

 So that's about it for now. I'll try and do another post next week after he goes back to gymnastics. Hoping things go well there and I know he will be absolutely thrilled to get back to his favorite activity.