Continuing the update...
We got home Saturday, and everything was going great. We were all happy to be back home. CJ's first night was uneventful. We had him on a strict schedule of oxycodone and ibuprofen to control the pain.
Everything was going fine until mid-afternoon, when CJ threw up. He threw up a couple of times over the next few hours, but by Monday morning, he was doing fine. We suspect the pain medication was causing it. The other possibility is that he just picked up a little stomach bug. His dad & I weren't really feeling great either, but that could have been sympathetic.
Monday was Memorial Day, and CJ felt well enough to go our neighborhood pool just to say hi to some friends. He had a good time showing off his new chest to everyone! You could tell he already had a better self-esteem. Everyone was impressed with the results of the surgery and amazed that CJ was up and around.
I noticed one morning that the right incision had opened back up a little bit. When I took a closer look, I saw it was oozing a little greenish puss. I cleaned it, applied some anti-biotic treatment, and bandaged it back up. After a couple of days of this, it had closed back up and looked like it was healing nicely.
The rest of the week was really uneventful. He was managing his pain well with the medication. He slept in a recliner. Sometimes getting him to get out of it was a challenge, as was getting him to do his breathing exercises, but by the end of the week, he was moving around well and talking about sleeping in in own bed.
He still tired easily, but he was amazing us with how well he was doing. He was even able to attend church and a friend's Eagle Scout Court of Honor without a problem.
When we left the hospital, we were told to make an appointment with CJ's pediatrician for two weeks later. The surgery clinic would also be making an appointment to see them in 4-6 weeks. I called and scheduled our appointment with his pediatrician for June 6th, 17 days post-surgery.
The second week CJ was home, he continued amazing us with his recovery. He was starting to go to the pool every day to visit with friends. Because of the incision I had treated, we didn't let him get into the water yet; we wanted to make sure that was good & healed. The hospital had said no swimming for two weeks, so of course, as soon as that two weeks was up, he wanted to be in that water! He wasn't happy with us. :) He went to a baseball game with his church youth group (where he caught a ball!), and he even felt well enough to attend his Taekwondo class (without really participating, of course) one day!
At his pediatrician's appointment, his doctor was very please with how well CJ was doing. She looked at the incision site that I had treated, and said it was closed & looked good. She wanted him to give it another couple of days before getting in the water. Other than that, everything was awesome!
We eased him into pool activities. He would get about waist deep in the water, but he didn't swim, and his incision sites were covered with waterproof bandages. We continued making sure he changed the bandages as soon as he got home, and that he stayed in water that was shallow enough for him to touch. Despite the restrictions, CJ could finally start enjoying summer!
The third week, CJ was almost back to normal. He wasn't taking any pain medications, he had moved to his own bed, and he was starting to do a few of his chores that didn't require much movement or strain.
We were all a bit surprised over this. Since most literature says the recovery time is 4-6 weeks, we really didn't expect him to be this active yet. We also certainly didn't expect him to be pain free. I can't tell you how grateful we were about it. He would tire a little more easily than he had before the surgery, of course, but it was never very bad. He was doing a great job of self-regulating. It looked like everything was on the mend.
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