Hospital photo dump...

Max has a little break this morning before his week explodes with activity, so I thought I could get a quick post up. All of his therapies will start back up this afternoon, and he'll have two days of school, along with his regular morning Skype sessions with his classmates. But, school is out today, so no Skype this morning.

I am looking through photos and see a lot I didn't share while he was in the hospital. I guess we were just a tad bit busy! But, some really neat things happened among the not so great things in those two and a half weeks on the 8th floor of The Children's Hospital.

The day that went crazy with Max stopping getting sick, but starting blowing up like Violet Beauregarde, was also the day that police officers from all over Colorado showed up to give kids gifts. It was quite the precession and we had a great view!


Speaking of blowing up like Violet Beauregarde....I realize I never put a picture up of just how big our little guy's tummy got. This was mid-day that day. He got bigger, but with all the drama and emergency meetings resulting in emergency surgery, I just didn't get any better photos than this.


If that looks just a little fat, remember that Max's stomach almost never is taller than his ribs and pelvis...he's a skinny minny!

Here's our guy right before surgery...he was in so much discomfort. I was a crying blubbering mess, and Steve had this look on his face most of the time until after surgery. Max had just formed a fever too, we were quite worried especially because no one could tell us exactly what was going on, they just knew they needed to get in there and fix it.


This is where we hung out while waiting for about 3 hours...maybe 4, I don't remember now. We were both exhausted, but only Steve has the ability to sleep anywhere, at any given moment and wake up fresh and ready to have conversations. So, he rested on a certain Monster's monster. I stayed up with that same face Steve had on in the previous photo.


The day after surgery, we had a visit from a few of the Colorado Avalanche hockey team. I'm sorry to say I have no idea who any of them are. Except the guy in black, I believe is a coach. They gave Max a little puppy and my friend Jenny got the signed cards to take home, since they actually watch hockey. It was sweet for them to come visit all the kids, and fun to watch them try to squeeze their giant hands into the gloves to come into his room.


I can't forget the care cards! Thank you to everyone who sent them. His doctors, nurses, techs, cleaning people all stopped to read them every day. The comment was always the same, "Max you have so many friends who hope you get better!". We filled two doors with the cards.


Another group giving out toys to the kids had a very special little George for Max. I kept forgetting his Curious George, but when I saw how perfectly this fit in his bed, I knew it was the right hospital George to have.


Steve's co-workers sent Max a little friend to keep him company while he got better.


Ha! Check out that nose!!


The Trans Siberian Orchestra did a concert that Abbey and Steve went down to listen to. They said it was only okay, so I don't feel like I missed a lot. But, again, cool that they stopped by the hospital to play for the kids and familie.


I think this was the day our guy got very sick. The infection peaked and he was having such a hard time breathing. But, that penguin helped him out a lot.


This was his Christmas blanket. It's Snoopy and Charlie Brown, and was part of his bounty from the Snow Pile gift shop I got to attend to pick out gifts for him since he was in the hospital during Christmas.


He was so excited to get balloons...and so much yellow!


This is how I knew he was better...much much better. This is how Max sleeps when he's most comfortable. Arms up, legs propped up. We got to go home a couple days later...



The one and only photo of me in the hospital...well minus the hundreds of minutes of video Abbey took of me eating, or talking, or whatever else she took video of with her new ipod. I was getting ready to learn the caps on Max's PICC line...and Steve had the camera.......I think I got more silver hair this visit...and more worry lines.



Abbey tried every time it came in to get a photo of the helicopter. She got one...minutes before we were discharged to go home.


This met us at home our first morning home...it didn't stick around very long.


I think that's all the hospital photos. I haven't yet put up a photo of the incision...mostly because it made me nearly faint TWICE when I saw it. It is not gory or gross, I just can't stand the thought of cuts and surgery...especially on my boy. So, if you want to see it, I'll email it to you. We'll get back to our regularly unscheduled programming now.