Active Autumn

I have narrowed it down to about 100 pictures I will use in an eventual series of posts on Charlie's accident and recovery, but I am going to wait a while to work on that. It is, as I'm sure you can imagine, an extremely emotional time to revisit and describe - plus I am waiting for a copy of all his medical records to make sure I get the details correct. Now we have him home and he is doing great so I thought I would keep up on the current events.

The evening before he came home (before I heard from Mark that that was even a possibility), my sweet friend Sarah offerred to have the other boys over for pumpkin carving. Isaac had basketball practice, so I took Samuel and David to Sarah's home to help with the carving (and help David eat his Krispy Kreme donut, too).

Sarah's kids are completely adorable, and smart and creative too. Love that bunch!

The next day at the hospital it was amazing to see the improvement Charlie had made in the two and half days I'd been away. He was running down the hall to get into the cafeteria before his cousin! In fact, though we lowered his mattress to the bottom bunk, this is where I found him his first morning home:

So you can imagine that even just one week later, he is about back to normal. We finally had a sunny day, so I did some yard work and had all the kids come outside too.

 

Thought this might be dangerous, but the surgeon okayed it (after the fact, heh).

Jumping in leaves is always a winner. Too bad we only found one rake so it took forever to make even that big a pile. I also got all my tulip bulbs planted in the front. Felt so good to be in the sun and not be thinking about anything health related!

The next day, Halloween, Charlie had his first follow-up appointments (a couple x-rays and a visit with his leading surgeon). It was really hard to get him out the door when he knew he was headed back to the hospital. I reassured him that he didn't have to go back upstairs to the pediatric floor and bribed him with anything he wanted afterwards but still it was one of those unfortunate buckle-the-child-in-forceably and then get-in-the-car-and-drive before they can unbuckle-and-hop-out situations. He requested we listen to our World Playground CD though, and after a song or two was pretty content. He held my hand all through the various admitting/waiting rooms and was nervous during his x-ray, but finally had some fun playing make-believe in the wait room of the surgeon's office, in the building across the way. He got a lot of Halloween trinkets and treats at each stop and we blew all the bubbles in his little bottle waiting for Dr. Reynolds, but he was happy.

After a successful check-up, it was time for a very late lunch. While eating his chicken nuggets (we had gone over 6 months without McDonalds but whataya gonna say?) Charlie requested we visit the zoo (one of the bribes offered earlier that morning). We were running late but again, how could I say no? The air was crisp but not cold and the zoo was almost deserted.

He was disappointed we missed the giraffe feeding time, and I was too since we've done it twice when I haven't had my camera with me! After going on all the slides a second time, we rushed home to get the brother's from Grandma's house. Once Mark was home, we headed to the movie theater (the first time for our entire family to go together) and watched Hotel Transylvania in 3D. (Also our first time seeing a 3D movie.) Charlie preferred watching the movie slightly blurry to wearing the glasses! The movie was in lieu of trick-or-treating. We love playing dress-up, but don't agree with many aspects of the actual holiday. Plus it wasn't until that afternoon's appointment that we got approval to have Charlie out in public again. We did have a little Halloween fun with a care package from Aunt Laura's family.

The next day we sadly had another appointment scheduled for Charlie, this time at Brownfield's Prosthetics & Orthodics, to look into a brace to correct the way his sternum is healing post-op. The practitioner had several concerns why Charlie may not be a great candidate so we talked through it, talked to Charlie about it, and scheduled another consult in four weeks. We had all the brothers with us this time - went to lunch together, then Costco, then a long-anticipated return to our local library and finally some playtime in the adjacent park.

 

You can see that we've been able to downsize to a regular bandaid over Charlie's trach. It is nearly healed over now.

We continue to be so grateful for our many miracles, most especially that Charlie has recovered so completely and life can begin to go back to (relatively) normal. Of course, that normalcy is greatly aided by the support of our friends and family: still praying for us, bringing meals, and offering their assistance. Thank you all so much.