Day 709 - May 8, 2010

We had a better than average day today. Kevin felt good most of the day, enabling me to spend quite some time in the kitchen. I just cooked all day and loved it. Even better, Mary came over for dinner so we even had company and Kev did fantastic with that - only going to his room during dinner (which is normal). To be honest, that pretty much sums up our day.

Anita - you asked when the plate would be reinserted and if it's a sure bet for eliminating the pain and the answers follow. I believe the skin expanders will be inserted in the beginning of June and they need to be in at least 2 months. Assuming there are no infections/complications - the plate should be put back in in roughly Aug/Sept. I should say that there are no guarantees of it taking the pain away, but it definitely removed all of the issues with him being in pain just by getting up the last time. We were at the point where we could go out and about for hours at a time - even going to the Atreyu concert last fall - without any real issues. That's not to say that Kevin lived pain free - he definitely always has had pain, but I am hoping that the day comes where he is pain free. It's probably my fondest wish for him.

Even Kevin is anxiously awaiting the plate being reinserted. He asks every other day or so 'how long?'. He knows that it really is a quality of life changing event and can't wait himself.

On a side note - we are working on taking him off the methadone. We are down to 2 pills a day now instead of the 4 1/2 he was on when we came home from the hospital. It sounds crazy to take him off of pain killers when he is in so much pain, but I'm not sure they are making any kind of difference. It really does appear to be an up/down issue and when we have taken him off the other 2 1/2 pills (slowly done) it has made no difference to the amount of other pain meds he takes. It is such a goal of mine to get him off all this crap.

We also took him off of one of his nausea medications when we got home and oddly enough - he hasn't been nauseous hardly at all and even stranger - he doesn't need the house to be frigid any longer. Yahoo! I was freezing all the time because he wanted it to be 65 degrees. Now it's a nice 72-75, depending on the day.

And now I want to wish all of the mothers out there - Happy Mother's Day!!! Tomorrow I am stuffing a turkey and having a big meal with Kevin, Breezy, Breezy's boyfriend and he also brought another soldier with him for the weekend so it's going to be a nice 'family' dinner. I so hope Kevin can handle it - at least for tomorrow...