Tl;dr: Unsurprisingly, the ortho team is astounded by James. He's ahead of the curve on every recovery milestone. This kid has been the most determined person I know since his first days on the planet. He's walking and eating and should be able to go home tomorrow. Thank you so much for all the love! 

Longer update:

Turns out I was super duper wrong about night 2 being better than night 1. Poor kiddo was in a lot more pain and was up every 45 min or so asking to be repositioned. That's apparently pretty normal as the anesthesia continues to wear off and he's getting moving again.

I left the hospital around noon yesterday so I could go sob on a Zoom call with my therapist + get a little sleep and a little time with Emet. Matt (aka best dad ever) took over and was with James for some major milestones. Between 12pm Wednesday and 12pm Thursday, the nurses took the catheter out and weaned him off of IV painkillers. James started walking to the bathroom, stood by himself to do an x-ray, and started eating solid food again. Such a resilient kiddo. He also gave a high five for the first time since before the surgery! :) Matt, on the other hand, is  😵 after a sleepless night.

I'm back at the hospital now after 24 hours at home with Emet. James is much more lucid and alert than he was before I left. We went for a few long walks around the unit, he ate a good lunch, I had two pieces of bacon and like six cubes of pineapple, and we watched Luca together. This is the longest stretch that he's been awake since Monday.

The ortho team wants to make sure James's O2 sats are good bc he's on opioid painkillers, but barring any issues with that, we should be able to go home tomorrow. Woo hoo! Will def be excited to see friends for short visits, but probably not in person til after this Covid wave has subsided. Love to all. <3

-- Bianca