Recovering

Eli is recovering well so far.  He is on his second week of the brace he has to wear to keep his knee straight.  So far he has managed to escape the death traps laid in his path by the girls' toys.  He is getting really good at using his crutches and navigating around things.  There have been a few close calls--a toothbrush left on the bathroom floor by Felicity that his crutch slipped on and getting his crutch tangled in a blanket in his bath.  He showers every other day because it is a frustrating process but we have it down to a smooth routine where most of his privacy is still in tact.  I have to help him dress and undress, turn on the water and plug the bathtub, turn the water off, help him get out of the tub.  He can do all the washing on his own and we just tie on his towel around him and shimmy his underwear off without me ever having to see anything.  It's hard for a teenager to be dependent on their mom to help them bathe!  He switched rooms with Will for his recovery time period because Will and Isaac have the bigger bathroom.  He wouldn't be able to use his bathroom because there isn't enough room to keep his leg extended.  Myself of Isaac help get him situated in bed with pillows propping things up, getting Ibuprophen ready incase he needs it in the middle of the night, and making sure he has a clean path to the bathroom free of dirty clothes.  He had his first post-op appointment this week.  The knee was so swollen that the doctor aspirated 120 ml of blood from his knee.  They filled up five huge syringes full of blood.  They numbed his knee before sticking in the syringe but said that if he were a Japanese patient, they wouldn't numb him.  The doctor said little kids that come in with broken bones get their bones reset with no pain management at all.  I said that they probably think Americans are babies and he said that he trained in the states so he understands the way Americans manage pain but that the Japanese probably do think we are babies.  Haha.  Anyway, the following day I went to help Eli into the bath and his entire leg, ankle, and foot were swollen.  His knee was as swollen as it was the day before!  I sent an email to the doctor and he said it is okay and probably because they aspirated the blood the day before.  I don't really understand how that makes sense but he wasn't worried so I'm not worried.  He said if it's still swollen for his coming appointment this week he will take more blood out and Eli is not looking forward to that at all.  He has to wear the brace for two extra days because of the swelling so he's feeling a little bummed about that but it will come off at the end of the week and then he can start bending his knee a little bit.  He starts PT tomorrow so that will add some new stress to my life but it will be good for Eli to have something to do.  He's bored and gets left home a lot because he can't do anything.  Even just knowing he will get out of the house for PT once a week will probably be good for him.