Today marks exactly one week since Henley's surgery. I can not believe its only been a week. After being discharged on Thursday we came home and quickly tried to get our family back into a "normal" routine. I felt like I was re-gathering all of my little chicks back into their home. I felt like two little pieces of my heart were missing while we were gone. Henley was so happy to be back in her own home and able to sleep in her own bed.
Henley has been completely off the narcotic meds since Friday. She was refusing to take them because of the taste so we have been alternating Tylenol and Advil every three hours. I can certainly tell when she has gone too long without pain meds because she just looks like she is in pain.
As far as her symptoms are concerned, we were told not to be looking for a change for about 3 months or so. Her brain really needs time to settle and calm down after the traumatic encounter with medical tools. So we will be patient. However, I will say that while in the hospital, both Adam and I thought her walking had gotten significantly worse, but now it appears to be back to normal. I have not noticed any limping or listing, but those things were also noted mostly when she was also having migraines or increased cranial pressure, so it is possible that the constant stream of pain meds is keeping her from having any of that. I suppose we will have an adequate picture once she is off all medicines.
Other than that she is really doing remarkably well. I just can not believe that she was having brain surgery a week ago today. Unless you see the back of her head, its would be impossible to know what had just happened in her life. Praise God for the resilience of small children.
As far as the rest of us are concerned, well.... we are tired. Adam has gone back to work and so I have been on my own during the days. I told someone yesterday that, before the surgery, I don't think I realized how little I actually watched my kids throughout the day. I used to be able to get so much more done while the kids were playing upstairs or entertaining themselves. However, now I am having to have my eyes on Henley almost all of the time and be within grabbing distance of her in case she chooses to climb on something. Oh my goodness, this is an exhausting task all by itself. However when you add in the two other children, one of which who is trying to learn to walk himself and pulls up on everything and is not necessarily stable, it makes for a very complicated day.
As always though, God's mercy is new every morning and He is constantly using people to provide for our every need. Yesterday my good friends Randi and Taylor called to tell me that they were dropping their kids off at school and coming to help me for a couple hours. When they walked in at 10:30 they instructed me to go and take a shower and eat something. They asked me what I needed done and so I told them that the kids still had not been fed breakfast. SERIOUSLY....at 10:30 am??? Mother of the year goes to...... Anyways, they were so helpful to be my extra pair of eyes and hands for a couple of hours. Thank you God for blessing me with some wonderful Godly women who are attentive to even the smallest needs. How in the world do people make it through these valleys in life without people like these girls?
Another huge blessing we have received has been meals & gift cards. I can not tell you how helpful it is to receive little blessings by mail and at dinner time. I have absolutely zero time to do anything around here and so every little bit of help and encouragement is huge to us. Thank you so much. You guys are such a blessing to us and we are learning how to love and serve differently every single day.