Just a Band-Aid!

I will post more later, but I just had to post the good news.  :)  Yesterday Drake got the pins pulled from his arm, and all he has is a band-aid!  Originally they thought they would put him in another splint for 2 more weeks, but the doctor said so much new bone has grown that he doesn't think it's necessary.  So we are super excited.  :)  I'll post some pics later.

New pics and an update on Drake-man

First of all, Drake has really adapted well to having this giant splint on his arm.  He doesn't seem to be in any discomfort, so that is so reassuring.  He had another x-ray this past Monday, and the doctor said everything looked good. (Well, from what he could tell anyways.  It took me and 2 different people to hold him down for the x-ray.  When we were done and I walked out through the waiting room, everyone gave me that 'pity' look because they could all hear him screaming during the x-rays...ugh)  Here is a picture of the little man and his big ol' splint...

We have another x-ray this coming Monday to check on things again.  Hoping it's uneventful this time.  :)

Also, I finally got some new pics of Mia!  Here are a few of them...

There are a bunch more, you can view them on my photo blog here if you'd like.  :)  Thanks again for checking in on us!

Doing Well :)

Just a quick update to say that Drake is doing well! 

The day we got home, he fell asleep on the couch for 3 hours!  Neither of my kids ever fall asleep anywhere but their beds.  But the poor little guy was so exhausted from the surgery and from only sleeping about 6-1/2 hours the night before that he just crashed on the couch.  Later on we put him in his high chair for dinner around 6:45, and he fell asleep before we even got his plate on his tray!  So we put him in his room, and he didn't wake up until 7:30 the next morning.  He was wiped out!

After catching up on his sleep, he has been doing great.  We haven't even had to give him pain meds since noon yesterday.  He doesn't seem to be in any discomfort, which is a great thing this soon after surgery.

That's it for now, hopefully next time I'll have some pics to post.  :)

We're back :)

Well, he made it out of surgery last night at about 6:00, so we ended up staying the night so they could monitor him.  THE ONLY thing he wanted to do (and I mean ONLY) is watch Toy Story.  I'm not kidding when I say he watched it at least 7 times in the hospital.  As soon as it would end, we had to restart it.  He didn't end up going to bed until I think 11:30 last night because it took him quite a while to come out of anesthesia, and when he did, he was super crabby, poor little guy.  I will say, though, the experience with him was so much better than with Mia.

For both of Mia's surgeries, she had to be given whatever they give them to calm down before surgery.  Of course, it only worked mildly.  For her first surgery, I think we were in the recovery room for 3 hours because she was thrashing and writhing so badly.  The second wasn't much better, although I know it was shorter than 3 hours.  We were still in there quite a while, though, because she refused to drink anything.  She is one tough cookie.

Drake, as soon as we walked into the room where we waited to be called back (and we had to be there TWO hours early!), he was so excited because there was a Toy Story race track thing and cars for him to play with.  That seriously occupied him for a solid hour.  And keep in mind he hadn't eaten all day!  After an hour he got a little antsy, so of course we put his movie on for him, and he was good to go.  In recovery, he was pretty upset and cried pretty hard for probably 15 minutes or so, but he was asking for water to drink, and shortly thereafter we got him to eat some Teddy Grahams and applesauce (I think 2 packs of each!  Ha!).  It was such a different experience with him.  He was pretty uncomfortable through the night, though, so none of us slept well.  We are definitely looking forward to a good night's sleep tonight.  He actually fell asleep in his high chair tonight without even eating dinner.  Poor guy, he is wiped out.


These are crummy b/c they're from my camera phone, but here he is playing with the cars while waiting for surgery...

and watching Toy Story - with, of course, his hat and his dodo :)

They did put the 2 pins in his arm.  His blue cast is off, but his arm is wrapped up so big in a splint that his shirts won't fit over it.  We are going to have to buy him some little kid t-shirts while he has this splint on.  Right now, the doc is thinking 3 weeks in this splint with the pins.  If all goes as planned, they will pull the pins in 3 weeks and possibly put him in another splint to protect his elbow while it continues to heal.  The biggest thing for us now is to watch for infection since the pins stick out through his skin.  Fortunately we can't see them, we just have to watch for fever, blue fingers, unusual fussiness, you know.

So that's the scoop for now.  We'll get another x-ray Monday to make sure it still looks good, but the doctor anticipates everything will be fine.

Mia had a great time at my mom's - she was upset to come home, I think!  She loved all the one-on-one attention - what child wouldn't?!  She's already making plans to go back soon.  :)

Thanks again for checking in on us and for all your sweet emails and prayers - they mean so much to us.  :)

Surgery today...

Well, Drake's arm is looking a little better than Friday, but not good enough to avoid surgery.  It is scheduled for 5pm today, we have to be at the hospital at 3.  The hardest part at the moment is that we can't feed him all day!  He got to eat breakfast, but we are just having to distract him so he doesn't realize he's probably STARVING!  I dropped Mia off at my mom's so I didn't have to feed her in front of him.  Also, the doc wants us to stay overnight since the surgery is so late in the day.  He wants to be able to watch him and make sure he has normal usage in his fingers and such since there are a bunch of nerves in the arm - they need to make sure the pins aren't where they're not supposed to be.  Brock and I will stay the night with him in the hospital, and Mia is staying at my mom's.

Now Mia thinks this is a vacation.  When we told her, she was like, "Poor Drake.  But guys!  Guys!  You know I love staying overnight at other people's houses!  I'm going to go pack my suitcase all by myself!"  And then she runs off.  Oh she is hilarious.

One other quick funny about her - Brock went golfing yesterday, and Mia saw him getting ready.  Here was their conversation:
Mia:  Dad, why are you wearing a work shirt today?  It's the weekend.
Brock:  I know, but I'm going golfing today.
Mia:  Well, I want to go golfing, too!
Brock:  Maybe when you're bigger you can come golfing with us.
Mia:  I am big!  I mean, look at my size!  I'm a good sized kid!

Hahahaha! It's so funny to hear her little 3-1/2 year old, pint-sized voice say such funny things with the inflection to go along with them.

Anyways, we'll keep you posted.  The worst part is putting them under.  Obviously Mia's been through two one-hour surgeries, and it is no fun.  And waking up was the worst for her.  I think we'll both feel a lot better once he's out of surgery.  I'll post an update when I get a chance, thanks for checking in on us.  :)