In the Heights and In the Hospital

The two highlights of our week!!  

First though, I'll start w/ my little man Braden and what's been going on with him.  I CAN NOT believe it's been almost exactly a year since his car accident.  I can tell you that I am beyond grateful that to look at him, you would never know what he has gone through this year.  He has healed wonderfully and things are good.  After his two initial surgeries on the day of the accident he has since had one maxiofacial surgery to detach the right side of his lip from the frenulum.  The majority of the trauma to his face has been the scar tissue build up from impact (again, stuff you can't really see on the outside, thankfully) and as the scar tissue was healing inside his upper lip, it was attaching itself to the gums.  

Our other scar tissue issue, was the "caving in" of the nasal cavity causing a few other negative side effects.  AND this is what nobody sees but has been the hardest part of the recovery.  Since he fractured his nose in the accident and sustained so much pressure there has been the continual build up of scar tissue within his nose making it really hard for him to breathe and even harder to SLEEP!!!!  This little guy has not had a full night of sleep in a year b/c he is constantly waking him self up gasping for breath. Insufficient airflow through the nose causes grinding, apnea and all sorts of other issues.  So, this brought  us to our last procedure... resolving things with an Ear Nose and Throat Dr./Plastic Surgeon.  

Yesterday we made hopefully one of our last trips to the Hospital/Medical Center for one day surgery.  The doc wanted to perform a nasal endoscopy, remove the adenoids, and then once he was all the way in he was going to make the final decision on what to do with the scar tissue build up.  There were several options... the worst case being cutting through the nose and essentially scrapping/removing the tissue itself.  The only problem with that would be re-scarring and re-build up :(

LUCKILY, after finishing the first two procedures, he found out the tissue was still soft enough so he ended up injecting 4 different areas with steroids hoping to "melt" (his word) the tissue down.  Only downside to that is we will have to go back in 8 weeks for another round of steroid shots in the nose (it's outpatient/one day again... but still... it's ONE MORE THING and that means a lot to Braden).  

Amazingly today, Braden is doing GREAT!!  I mean, even yesterday as soon as we got home from the hospital, he was up and at it, doing every single craft project we could think of!!  He was extra HIGH and extra LOW at points from being on Lore-tab, but really things are going to be fine!!!  He hasn't complained of pain (Dr. said the steroid injection points would be sore) but NO COMPLAINTS... just lot's of ENERGY!!  Yeah!  I am so happy and grateful.  

I'll finish this post on another happy note.  Wednesday (after lot's of strep at our house) Blake and I finally got to go on our Valentine's Day Date!!  We got 5th row seats to "In the Heights", one of my favorite Broadway shows that I had been dying to take Blake too.  Last year, Ashlee and I won "lottery tickets" and front row seats to the show during our trip to NYC.  It also happened to be on the same night of the "car bomber in Time Square"... ring a bell?!!!  So, the show was delayed an hour and half and we were quarantined inside the theatre for the evening... but it was a FABULOUS show and a great memory (I know it sounds crazy, but it was a fun memory) and I couldn't wait to see it again.

I have to say, the tour show was just as talented and amazing!!  Blake loved it too and leaned over half way through and said, "thanks so much for bringing me".

Okay, hope everyone has a great weekend!!  We will be laying low, but happy that the recovery is going so well!!  THANK YOU for all the thoughts and prayers sent our way this week.  They are so appreciated!!