Post-Surgery Blues

It's been a little over a week since my son's surgery. He's doing wonderfully, making great strides in his recovery. There are some drawbacks, however. The pain medication made him sleep all the time, so he decided to back off on the dosage. This was great at helping him stay awake, but sitting for long periods of time were never his strong suit.

He's impatient to get up and moving, but the long periods in bed, in the wheelchair or in the arm chair tend to make his knees stiff, his legs sore and swollen. Naturally, this frustrates him and he lashes out. The target usually is me, his mother. I try my best to help him move, but if he snaps at me, I may move too quickly or with jerky motions. This causes pain and he talks as if I'm intentionally hurting him on purpose.

I know intellectually he's just venting, but with the stress and strain of longs days keeping him company and pushing his wheelchair up and down the steep walkway between the Ronald McDonald House and the hospital, my nerves are strained as well. All I can do is pray to God and his best friend to help him through his frustration and to keep us both sane. It hurts when he tells me he's scared for what'll happen when his dad goes back home for a few days. He's afraid I'll just keep hurting him and put all his hard work in physical therapy back weeks, not days.

So I want to thank all my friends for all their support and ask that you bear with me through this. I'll be making more phone calls than I have lately, you can be sure of it. It's so heartbreaking I'm almost tempted to talk with the RMH social worker about finding someone for me to talk things over with. My husband isn't much help in that department.