Incision

We are so appreciative to our friends, Todd & Christen, who drove up from Visalia and spent the day with us today. They ended up being the only visitors Caden had while in the hospital. We had no idea he would be discharged so fast! We were told to anticipate a 7-day hospitalization as the best case scenario. And, in the past, Caden has never been a “best case scenario” kind of kid! So I figured we would be more than 7 days, certainly not less. That thought never crossed my mind!

Christen and Todd with Caden

But Caden had a really fun time with Christen and was super silly with her before we managed to get out of the hospital. And he had fun with her later at the Ronald McDonald House after he had a nap. They brought some fun toys for him and I know he will enjoy them! And, Greg and Todd got to go on a bike ride which always makes Greg happy. So it all worked out perfectly! Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedules to visit us. That means a lot!

We are so grateful to have a room at RMH! It gives us a feeling of stability for the next week. The only unfortunate thing about our room here is that we don't have a bathtub. We only have a shower and Caden can't be in a shower because of his incision. If we had a bathtub we could have kept the water level very low and had Caden sit in the water. But Greg managed to turn the water toward one side of the shower and had Caden stand in the other. Then he used a soapy wet towel to clean Caden off. When he got out I dried him off, removed the bandages off the sternal incision, and took pictures of the incision. They told us to take it off today so it could start to air out and heal. The bandages covering his chest tube and the pacer wires will stay in until tomorrow night. But I can't believe how great his incision looks even now! I think it looks better than before, so maybe it was a good thing he had another surgery... ;) He ended up getting a little plastic surgery as part of the deal! j/k

There's that cheesy smile!

I am so amazed at the body's ability to heal itself. Kids are so resilient because I am positive that if I had open heart surgery three days ago, I wouldn't be doing nearly as well as Caden! I'm pretty sure I would be whining and complaining about the pain or discomfort. But he is handling it so amazingly well. I am so proud of him! Such a rock star!

As a final note, I wanted to include the lyrics from one of Caden's favorite songs because we absolutely believe this to be true!

“My God Is So great!”

My God is so great, so strong and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do.
My God is so great, so strong and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do.
The mountains are his, the rivers are his, the stars are His handiwork, too.
My God is so great, so strong and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do. (for you!)