{post op}

After about 45 minutes of surgery, and 45 more minutes of screaming in recovery, Benson settled down and settled into his hospital room. He was very groggy, tired, and pretty sore, but still wanted to play with the cool new toy from Guh and Papa. The 24 hours in the hospital for Benson were good to get him hydrated (through IV) and eating. He started eating and drinking right away in the hospital, just had a hard time getting comfortable. Brandon stayed the night with him in the hospital and didn't get much sleep. Meanwhile, the girls and I stayed the night at Guh Wallace's house (close to the hospital) and didn't get much sleep either, and ended up in the ER Clinic in the early morning hours. Bailey had been suffering from the Flu all week, and it had settled in her chest, and couldn't stop coughing. After a breathing treatment and some medicine, (which took 1.5 HOURS to fill!), we headed home to see "The Goon." Guh and Papa had picked Brandon and Benson from the hospital and brought them back to our house. We all rested for awhile...

It was the next day (Saturday) that was the worst. Benson wouldn't eat or drink anything or take his medicine. He had a hard time sleeping, and was totally lethargic. He started shaking from not eating. We tried everything. Finally I resorted to squirting juice in his mouth through a syringe. **GUH WALLACE TO THE RESCUE!** She brought Benson a variety of slushies, aka: "Blue Drinks," for Benson to drink. And we bribed, threatened (another IV), and encouraged him to drink. It worked. And for the next week, we made morning (and afternoon, and evening) trips to Sonic to get slushies and anything else he would nibble on (ice cream, fries, etc). And we resulted to bribery (matchbox cars) to get him to take his medicine.

Sights like these were few and far between the last week. The poor guy was so hungry and would try to eat, but it would hurt. We gave him whatever, whenever (like these pictures of him stealing Guh W. food). He's gone from 30lbs to 26lbs in 10 days! He's so scrappy and skinny looking, it makes me so sad and worried. He is slowly but surely getting better every day, and eating more everyday. Today has been a great day because he has eaten normal food with us and at meal times!