Kai's surgery: pain management

Malakai was doing so well on Thursday after surgery. He was putting weight on his legs more quickly than they said he would after the caudal block, he was in a good mood and very talkative, and his appetite was better than the days before surgery.

Friday we had a handful of visitors come through. Grandma Debbie stopped in to bring us some groceries, Uncle David was in town and spent some time with us, Aunt Jennifer dropped off a meal and visited for a bit, and Henry brought his parents Mark + Jenny- who also gifted us with a meal. Malakai would get little bursts of energy every time someone came over and then he'd crash- hard. It was difficult to keep him calm, he was running all around and thanks to his pain meds, he could. But once they started to wear off and his energy faded he was miserable.

{broke out the juicebox to get him to drink something}

He had only napped for 45 minutes, by the time we had dinner and got him to bed we were all exhausted and Malakai was especially cranky. He woke often last night (after sleeping 13 hours on Thursday night) and was obviously in pain. We gave him his meds in the middle of the night to sustain him through but he still struggled to sleep comfortably for very long.

{daddy snapped this photo of our groggy boy today}

Today we haven't had any visitors, he's been much calmer, and we can see the difference in his pain level. He gets upset around the time his pain meds wear off, but not nearly as badly as yesterday because he hasn't exerted himself to make the pain worse. We've cuddled a lot on the couch watching movies or playing quietly on the floor with blocks. He took a 3 hour nap and woke up talking instead of crying. I think we've finally recuperated from how busy yesterday was and I'm so glad to not see him in pain. His swelling has even gone down considerably during the day today.

I have some wonderful volunteers at the church who are going the extra mile to take on some of my usual tasks at the church tomorrow morning so both Ben + I can stay home one more day. We feel so loved and blessed. God is truly watching over us and we are so thankful for all the wonderful people he has put in our lives.