Friday Evening

I realize everybody has been itching to see pictures, so I'll start with some that I haven't uploaded yet that were taken on the day of surgery.

Here is Sam just before the surgery. He seemed pretty

happy for the most part, but occasionally would ask to just go home.

This is in the PICU

Also in the PICU

On to more happy photos...taken today.

After dinner tonight, Sam was rewarded with a cupcake

We were reunited with our favorite nurse from two years ago tonight. Holly is from Mainland China. Sam spoke his first Chinese word with her two years ago. She is thrilled to be back with Sam and keeps doting over how brilliant he is. She is the one and only nurse he has actually spoken to this week. Every other time a nurse has tried to ask him questions or engage him, he turns his head the opposite direction and won't speak or make eye contact. With Holly Sam counts to ten in Chinese, reads his letters, answers her questions and takes his medicine without complaint. What a blessing.

When he woke up from his nap today, Sam was in an extreme amount of pain. It took narcotics to help him feel better. After dinner tonight, he was begging to go for a wagon ride. We rode him down to the interactive computer game on the floor and he put puzzles together with it. I was blown away by how fast he caught on. It took him about 20 steps before he started walking more comfortably. At first he was slow and unsure. He was still walking gingerly towards the end, but with more speed and grace.

We looked at his thorocotomy incision tonight and it's still a bit swollen. I'll be interested to hear what the doc says tomorrow.

Maybe we'll go home tomorrow, depending on everything. We are trying to determine whether or not we should just stay here one more night even if we're discharged tomorrow. I am not looking forward to a three hour drive of Sam in a car seat with restraints pushing on his incision. Maybe one more day might help the healing process a bit more.

Oh, and he's still refusing to use a diaper, but is routinely going potty in a little portable urinal and even used a portable toilet (adult size!) earlier to have his first bowel movement (sorry for TMI, but it's a BIG achievement!). It was quite funny because Bill held him on the potty (since he kept falling in) the whole time and ended up getting sprayed a bit. The fun never ends over here!