Those first few days of having Brady at home were pretty quiet. Kids were going to school so the house was fairly quiet. We went for a drive one day. The lemon drop had an appointment another day, and Brady stayed home and slept while we had childcare for the morsel. Cher took Laela and Wavy a couple of days to lighten the load. Meals were brought. We just only survived. We waited a day or two, but finally unveiled the incision itself! While it looks totally badass, it also looks super clean and beautifully done!!
It was actually SO impressive when I took the dressings off how bloody they weren’t!! What a great closure!
One day, I took Brady into my hair girl and she washed his hair for him, because I knew he was feeling gross and unclean, but he wasn’t supposed to get his incision very wet. What an AMAZING hair girl we have that she was willing to navigate the blood, crusties, antiseptic, etc. She’s a rockstar.
He felt SO much better after this!! 💜
Probably the most challenging part of Bradys recovery wasn’t actually about Brady. Our little lemon drop legitimately would not sleep a WINK without being held, and you may or may not know, but sleep is kind of a crucial part of healing. Sleeping in the night and in the day were all pretty choppy, so some of Brady’s recovery moved slowly at first.
Recovery side effects were likely what you’d expect. Headaches were a big part of it, though they were well managed with medication. Another immediate side effect was jaw pain, which you wouldn’t expect! However, the part of the brain that they worked on was connected to muscles in his jaw. Thankfully, that has all lifted now 🙂 No more pain while eating. The pressure in his head was the most uncomfortable part, I’m told. He was on a steroid for that, and he could feel it within the hour of needing to take it that there was inflammation that needed to be brought down. However, that steroid is not a nice one, and Brady is now off of it, and actively working to get off of his other strong drug. Bradys entire body got much weaker after surgery. His legs are significantly shakier when walking. He can still get around, but it takes a lot more concentration. Since getting home, we’ve rearranged parts of the house that he would normally walk through to now fit his wheelchair. I’m sure much of that will still improve with time, but we’re rocking the now, and thats what we need for now.
Brady has described feeling “heavy headed.” He was first saying light headed, because thats a pretty well understood term, but when he explained it to me in detail, it is much more heavy than light. There is still a dizziness, but maybe his head feels a little, like, nodding? Droopy? It was hard for him to explain so I have next to no hope of explaining it myself 😅 But when it comes around, it usually means he’s maybe overdone it a little and needs to lay down for a bit. We’re learning to manage these things, but we think they’re mostly just part of recovery and won’t be our daily life forever.
Since coming home, Brady has recruited the help from our lovely new neighbour for a haircut to accommodate his giant new scar, haha! Thank you Chantelle!!
Again, he felt WAY better after!
Dekker lol 😅
Recovery is still coming. Brady is realizing as time goes by that he has neurological pathways that are still getting reorganized. Where he used to have his own thoughts and opinions about all basic daily things, he is now having to make those as fresh decisions. He explained it to me in traffic one day when we were stuck behind someone going VERY slowly. He didn’t know whether or not to be annoyed or just relaxed about it. He didn’t know which was his normal response or not, and he had to choose. So, with this context, you can likely understand that Bradys mental energy is waning hard these days 💜 He is still capable, and he can compensate pretty well when he has to, but basic things such as visiting are ten times more taxing these days. So please still visit with him! It’ll just likely be shorter. Thanks for understanding, guys.
Ok. I think I’ve covered the basics of the physical recovery for this post. We’re two weeks out. Today is a big day over here! I’m taking Brady in to get his staples out!! Ack!! Hopefully those pictures didn’t make anyone squirm. We think they’re so awesome. Brady actually has more staples in his head than he had in his spine from his last surgery! So we’re calling it a date 💜 With the babies, of course. We’re going to go get frostys and fries for lunch, and then go get the staples pulled out of Bradys head. Together! Hahaha!
Happy Friday, everyone!!