Day 3–Recovery

Endurance. Perseverance. Patience.

These are things we have to remember these days. We have been told for 3 months during our appointments that his post-surgery recovery would take 7-10 days. Our minds know that, but our hearts are slow to catch on. Our arms just want to hold this little guy:

We’ve been debating back & forth about posting a current “ICU” picture of Asher, but I’m not sure we’re ready for that. But here’s the mental picture for you:

On our last count, he has 4 IV’s (one in his neck, one in each arm, and one in his groin). He also has that lovely Foley catheter in down there with a blood pressure cuff around his little leg. In his chest he has 3 tubes draining from his chest cavity from around the incision. One hand is wrapped with an infrared sleeve that monitors his O2 levels. In one nostril he has the breathing tube that goes all the way into his lungs. In the other nostril he has a feeding tube that goes all the way into his stomach. His forehead is covered with an electronic sticker that is monitoring brain activity. But he’s still cute as a button!

 

Bottom Line:

Asher is still doing well. He’s progressing nicely. His main goal today was to use the bathroom! And he “voided” (peed) like a champ. They really wanted to see the excess fluid (caused by all of the sedation drugs) out of his body. The hope would be that he comes off the breathing machine tomorrow.

 

What we’re thankful for tonight:

Some big milestones for Asher today!! He got one (out of three) of those drainage tubes out of his chest –AND- he started getting some “mommy” milk through his feeding tube.

Again, we have friends to thank for dinner. A big thanks to some friends from church: Joe & Abby Fernandez, owner / operators of the Chik-fil-a on HWY 15 / 501 in Durham, for bringing us some yummy CFA. They also brought along a freezer meal from another set of friends, Paul & Cheryl Pottschmidt. Cheryl and her kiddos Claire & Evan threw in some devilishly delicious treats for us as well.