Michael's hockey team got to scrimmage at the ShoWare center in Kent during the Thunderbirds game. I admit, we were feeling a little bit of trepidation as it is a big arena with lots of new sounds/smells for Nick. Not to mention the crowds. We were wondering what we could have gotten ourselves into as we drove to the arena. Parents of autistic kids everywhere know there are two options for this: A) He will love it B) He will scream bloody murder and it will be another event in which one of us will spend in the car with the boy. It turned out that he ended up loving the two zambonis they had. He tolerated the noise. There were a couple of close calls where he latched on to my jacket and buried his head when our team scored and the bull horn sounded; but it was a relatively scream free event and he even SMILED! Not at the camera of course.
That was the only fun thing that happened this week. I had Monday off due to the holiday, which was nice. It was relaxing in order to prepare for this:
On Tuesday Nick and I spent three hours in the hospital getting the necessary paperwork and procedures accomplished for his surgery on Wed. I think we spent more time waiting then actually doing anything. We talked with the Dr and went over everything we needed to do on Wed. Nick was quiet with no major meltdowns. Once that was over, I had to rush Nick back home and get to a meeting at work. I called that afternoon and got our show time to the hospital the next morning. We had to be there by 6:30 AM! Yikes that is early! Michael got to come with us, since he really could not stay home by himself. Since he only had a half day of school on Wed I did not feel that bad.
This was my little man sitting in the O.R. waiting room at 7am. I tried to prepare him as much as I could the night before, but not really sure of what would happen other than "Tomorrow we will have your owie fixed", it was really kind of difficult to be very specific. I explained it to him as best I could, and he was rather good.
His owie BTW was an inguinal hernia. Not exactly sure how he got it, but it was getting bigger and bigger so we thought it was best to have it fixed. Surgery was two hours long, and we spent about another hour in the recovery room. They gave him some sort of spinal block to help with pain after the surgery, only problem was, it rendered him virtually unable to walk. The poor kiddo came out of anasthesia unable to use his legs. He was MAD! I held him in my lap (yep, my BABY LET ME HOLD HIM!) and did my best to comfort him. He was super cuddly and I was enjoying every minute of holding him on my lap like I did when he was a baby. Michael was the best big brother a kid could ask for. He was feeling very bad for Nick and was very concerned about him. When we got home Nick still could not walk, so we each took turns holding him up as he moved his legs where he wanted to go. The kid was not about to sit in one place very long! His recovery has been slow but steady. It took him until the next morning to pee, and he is still pretty swollen. He began to walk again Wed evening, and has been getting pain meds off and on when he seems to be hurting. He has been very testy and short fused/stimmy the last few days. I am sure that is a result from everything that has gone on this week. I am hoping next week will be better and he will be closer to his old self. Really missing the old cheery Nicholas.
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