About this time last month, we were breathing a collective sigh of relief, having just gotten home from the hospital.

I will readily admit to being traumatized by the whole situation, but I wasn’t able to fully express it until we were safe at home. I know during that time God gave me strength and the ability to steel myself  and bear with everything that was going on. Because I am sure that I didn’t possess such before we entered those hospital doors.  While Dan seems to think the only person traumatized was Ethan.

Ethan has been recovering remarkably well. He has asked us numerous times, “Why did the doctor scratch me?” And we have responded, ” Well, your belly was hurting badly and the doctor had to take a look inside. So he made a little cut where he saw that your appendix was very angry and causing the problem. Then he took it out and sewed you up!”

He has made drawings of his ordeal. The one below shows a Mom and Dad taking care of their boy who is at the hospital. The ink blob on the boy is the White Thing. And all that loopy stuff on the left side? Ethan explained that is “the pole”. His IV pole. I think it is great that he is talking and drawing about his experience! Though I am no psychologist, surely they would nod in agreement that he is recovering well emotionally as well. I mean, all the people in the picture are smiling!

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The day the last steri-strip fell off, he ran to us and said, “My last little white thing fell off! So does that mean I can run and jump now??!!”  

“We have to go back to the Doctor soon and he will check your White Thing and let us know if it’s okay for you to do all those things”, I replied. As you can imagine, keeping a 4-year old from running, jumping, climbing, wrestling, going to the park, and doing anything that might overexert himself is next to impossible. But we have managed. Lots of coloring, reading, and tic-tac-toe. LOL

And now, here we are, waiting on Dr. Robertson to come in the exam room. Ethan is playing hopscotch on the floor tiles and I am reading a magazine to pass the time.  He finally comes in and examines Ethan. We talk about Ethan’s weight loss and he tells me that it can take a couple months for his metabolism to get back on track. I laugh, thinking about the “midnight snacks” that he has been asking for each night lately, and say “I think it’s coming back!”  He also says that sometimes the body doesn’t like the internal stiches and may spit one out somewhere around the incision site. And for the next year, the incision site will be lumpy from the scar tissue.

Ethan breaks into the conversation, saying, “Can I run now?”

And Dr. Robertson, smiles and says, “You can go full speed!”

As we leave the room, Ethan fires off a few questions, “I don’t have to stay here? I don’t have to eat in the bed? No pole either?”

When I confirm that we are leaving and answer all his questions with “no”, he had a look of surprise on his face. And I had to laugh. It looked something like this:

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Full speed ahead, baby!