Brotherly love

When all the screaming is done

Dean slept through the night for the first time since the surgery. And, when he did finally get up at the civilized hour of 7:00am, he didn't scream or cry. He just said 'hi' and went into the bathroom. This has been a drama filled week. Not because there's been any drama, just because Dean is dramatic. I don't mean to diminish his pain - there's no question he was feeling it and Dean feels everything acutely. A hangnail to you and I is an annoyance but to Dean it's the loss of a significant amount of skin practically equaling an entire finger. Sigh, I'm still doing it - diminishing his experience. It sucked, ok. The pain for him, the screaming for us. It all really, really sucked. There were a few times that I thought 'what's a little sleep apnea? maybe this was a mistake.' But obviously, there's no going back and besides, hearing his deep, even breathing without any interruptions to breathe is worth the 2 weeks of screaming.

Nature Hike with Dean

Since Dean is missing school this week, I've come up with some ideas that are both fun and educational. Today was science day so we took a walk in the wildlife reserve. Here is the story:

Dean spots something in the distance:

A great egret. I tried to get closer but he wasn't interested.

We walked a little further and watched the ducks, the geese and the birds fly overhead and into the lake.

We decided to head back.

We spotted our egret friend again.

He's still not interested in staying around.

Then we spotted this beautiful butterfly.
And her friend.
The end.

A Corner

Finally, I think we've turned a corner on this thing. Dean only woke up once last night at 4:30am and then, after about 10 minutes of cajoling, drank some water, took the medicine (the yucky kind at that) and then fell back to sleep until 7:15. He hasn't had motrin since 6:00 last night. He still complains of pain in his ear but it doesn't last as long and it's certainly not so dramatic.

He desperately wants me to do Bakugan battles with him but I need to do some work (what, I'm waiting for my spreadsheet to load) and told him I can't. He's cutting off the tips of his gloves now because that's what the Bakugan guys have. This boy lives for fantasy.

Ok, the spreadsheet has finally loaded now so I'm off to work.

I am so relieved that he's finally feeling better.

Pictures and an Update

You'd never know from the pictures just how miserable Dean has been the past few days. Tuesday and Wednesday were hard, Thursday was better and Friday was the best day yet. It all fell apart Friday night though. He was awake every 2 hours screaming that his ears hurt. I called the ENT on call on Saturday morning and he said that it's not uncommon to have ear pain after the surgery and to alternate the tylenol w/ codeine with motrin. Even with that, he still had ear pain intermittently. He woke up frequently Saturday night and last night, too. I left a mesage with the doctor to see if there's anything else I can do. Part of the problem is that during the night he's not drinking so his throat gets dry and then it hurts to swallow so he just refuses to do it. But, he can't take the medicine without swallowing so he screams from the pain and screams at us for trying to make him take the medicine and drink. Last night, after an hour of screaming I had almost convinced him that he should take the medicine and he looked up at me and said "MOM! This is going to hurt me more than it will hurt you." Later in the night, was it 2:00 or 3:00 - the time is all blurred, I was explaining why he needed to take the medicine, why he needed to drink, repeating myself over and over as calmly as possible and he finally looked at me and said, "I don't accept that. I just don't accept that."

It's really hard to not laugh when he says stuff like that.

The last week has been really hard but I was expecting that. But I thought that we'd be on the other side of it by now and that he'd be feeling better, not worse.

*****

I took a photography workshop a few weeks ago and finally had a chance to play around with it this weekend. Dean is very easy to catch but Jack is really tough. He just never stands still. I'm always catching him with his eyes closed or just the blur of his head as he whips around to run somewhere else. So these are the best of the many that I took.

*****

The ENT office just called back. Sounds like they may be calling in a prescription for something stronger than tylenol with codeine.

Jack, decidedly less zen

Dean in a zen moment

Out of surgery

The surgery went beautifully. He's out of anesthesia and eating a popsicle. We should be going home in 2 hours.

Surgery

I should be in bed but I'm not sleepy yet. Dean's surgery is tomorrow morning and my mind's still going. We'll leave here at 5:30am and the surgery is at 8:30am. That's awfully early to get up to sit around and wait but we've got books and a leapster to keep him busy so he'll be fine. He's not nervous or anxious or worried in any way, shape or form! We've been talking about it all weekend -- we practiced gargling and we picked out ice cream and pudding. He picked out the pjs he wanted to wear to the surgery and the blanket and stuffed animal he wanted to bring. Jack wanted to come so he can hold Dean's hand but I told him he would stay home with grandma. We bought new toys for them - Dean for being brave and Jack for being a good big brother. Aside from being super rambunctious, they've both been really good this weekend. I really hope that Dean bounces back from this surgery quickly.