Milestones!

Here's the update of our fun at the hospital!

(If you haven't heard the story yet, scroll down or click here .)

I will warn you, there are pictures and some are a bit gross.  I didn't take any of the really gross stuff they've done but the wound isn't all that pretty in general right now!

We got here Tuesday night, and will either be going home Friday or Saturday- God willing.  We are waiting on the culture from the infection to grow enough to identify what kind of bacteria so they can decide the best antibiotic to treat.  He's been on a broad spectrum anitbiotic while we've been here via IV and all we know thus far is that it's consistent with bacteria found in the mouth.  (Therefore it is probably nothing too extreme.)  So they need to make sure that they send him home with the best antibiotic for the specific bacteria.  Good news is he's been fever free for at least 12 hours so far and the infection seems to be responding to the antibiotic, it's definitely improving.  

So here's the picture story...

This is the initial picture taken Tuesday morning.  You can still see the line of the wound and it doesn't look too bad.

This was taken around lunch time on Tuesday.  You can see that it was showing more swelling.

This was once we were waiting at the ER, the area around the knee was red, swollen and very hot.  And he had a fever and could not walk at all.

Which meant he got to enjoy his first REAL wheelchair ride! (Like because he needed it, not because he wanted to play on it!)

Waiting for the ER doc.  A better view of the redness and swelling, not really terrible yet.

The swelling is enough that you can no longer really see wound at all.

It actually looked far redder in person, but the redness spread, just in the 2 hours waiting to be transferred to the pedatrics floor, from the area surrounding the knee cap all the way to the back of the knee.  It was making me a bit nervous, I couldn't wait for them to start the antibiotics!

Another view...actually doesn't look so scary close up.

You can see the redness becoming worse.  The "puffy" looking area was full of fluid (puss).

Finally made it to bed at 2 am.

Best part of the stay so far (and perhaps the only good part). Eating Lemon Meringue Pie!

A couple of hours after they opened up the wound and squeezed the fluid out- it was like magic! Looking 500x better already!  By far the worst part so far.  You can see that his thigh and calf are swollen as well.  The area from mid calf to mid thigh was so painful he screamed (literally) if a sheet touched it.  You can only imagine the pain he was in as they manually squeezed all the fluid out. I hope to NEVER be in a situation where one of my kids is in that much pain!! But as you can see, the area went from grapefruit size to maybe softball size!  AND it started to feel better almost immediately! He could move his leg within 30 minutes. (Not bend, but lift a bit!)

Looking like a 4 year old version of himself.  (There's a picture of him when he was 4 with his hand on his chin like that.) SO nice to finally see him able to smile!

And FINALLY, after 3 hours of sleep and no nap, he fell asleep at 9 on Wednesday night.  I wish I could say he had a good night's sleep, but it's kind of hard when you have to pee every hour and a half thanks to a constant saline drip in addition to the antibiotics.  And then there's the aide who come to take vitals every 4 hours and the nurse who comes to switch the antibiotic every 6. And they don't coordinate their visits!

But even with a less-than-ideal night's sleep, he was finally able to move on his own a bit once he woke up!! He had to drag his left leg but it is SO much better than having to be carried! (Which was painful for both him and I.)  And he hit the "I want to do it myself" point. Wouldn't let me help him do anything, not even get in or ot of bed.  I believe that he thought he could go home as soon as he could manuever himself.  Unfortunately not.

We thought the chair might be more conducive to Lego building, and once he sat in it he decided he was not going back in that bed, not even to sleep if they let him cleep in the chair!  Now, having slept in the chair twice so far, I can't believe that it is more comfortable than the bed, but it is FAR easier for him to get in and out of.

He just got the news that his soccer team lost 5-0 last night.  He is so disappointed that he can't finish out the season and doubly so since it looks like he might be kind of needed.

Jonah's project today.  Took him a bit longer because he can only use his left hand, since the IV is in his right and it hurts for him use it. But, seeing as how we have nothing but time, that was maybe a good thing! (Can you see that he is standing up?? With only the support of his IV pole!?!?!  Such an improvement!)

We found a day room with a Wii, XBOX 360, and a bunch of books and games.  He's having a blast now, found a friend to play with and they've been playing together for 4 hours now.  Theyve moved onto CandyLand after rotating through the video games. 

It is probably common sense, but never order hospital mac and cheese. Especially if it says on the menu it's the "new, healthier" version. Mac and cheese should never be healthy.