Post-Glenn: At Home

Being able to come home from the hospital after the Glenn was joyous. This time around we weren't worried, anxious, or terrified. We just wanted to be at home. We wanted to be all together again. Being apart during such a time is hard on our family. We left hospital with Brewer hooked up to a Holter Monitor, which records his heart beat/rhythms. The medical staff was a bit curious (worried?) with his heart rate because it's never steady, it jumps around like crazy. While he sleeps it will go between 90 and 120 without ever settling in. It's a little crazy and I hate that it does that. We had to leave the HOlter on for 24 hours and then send it back to PCMC for them to gather the data. This first Holter didn't read which was SOOO annoying. It's hard to keep Brewer from wanting to pull it off. And I had to record all his activity, sleeping, eating, crying, fussing, etc. A few weeks later they sent us another Holter, which ended up working, and the results came back fine, good rhythm. 

Hooked up to the Holter Monitor ~ round 1

Being home was good, but Brewer was not happy. He was grumpy for about two weeks. I felt bad for him. There really wasn't much we could do to help him besides hold him. I'm not entirely sure how well the pain meds they sent us home with worked. So we just held him. All. The. Time. He didn't sleep too well either. I was pretty discouraged being home. I felt like we had taken 5 giant steps backwards. He was grumpy. He was up a million times in the night. Ate much more often. He was on more oxygen than before surgery. I was just frustrated. I thought this surgery was going to get us to a better place.

Not wanting to let go of Mom, even for one second. =)

Brewer has always LOVED the bath. Sometimes it's the only time of day that we can guarantee he'll be happy. But after surgery, we can let his scar get too wet. With how grumpy he was I would have let him be in the bathtub all day, but we couldn't do a bathtub so we resorted to the bumbo in the sink. He seemed to like it just as much. THANK GOODNESS. 

Bumbo sink bath!

Even thought Brewer was grumpy quite often, we still managed a smile from time to time.

After we had been home from the hospital for a few days, my Mom flew into town. We had been planning on her coming to visit all along after the Glenn and it was AMAZING to have her around. She was such a great help with both Brewer and my sanity. She cooked, cleaned, held Brewer, let me shower, played with Boyd and much much more! We even managed to have a little fun while she was in town. One evening we all got out of the house and went to the golf course. We hung out at the driving range until Brewer was ready to go home and then Phil and Boyd stayed and played a round. We even managed to all go out to dinner one night to the Cheeseburger Factory and then milkshakes at the Victor Emporium after.

Grandma Thelin!!!!!

At the driving range

So great to be able to take my Mom out and show off our beautiful valley

Family of four

Milkshakes at the Emporium

Reading with Dad

Having so much fun playing with Grandma

While my Mom was in town, Phil surprised us with this little 50. Some friends are letting us borrow it and Boyd was thrilled! He did really well for his first ride. Before Phil would let Boyd get on, he made sure the throtle limiter was set to the lowest gear. Phil showed him how it all worked and then ran along side. Everyone had a good time (except maybe Grandma, she thought she was going to lose a grandson that day). 

1st dirt bike ride

Looking back at those couple of weeks, I'm really not sure how we survived. But I'm glad we did, for better or for worse I'm not really sure. I do know that having my Mom made a huge difference for the better.