Brayden's Journey

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Update of birthday boy :)

Been a few days since the last post, been a busy few days that's for sure.  With travelling back to Arizona, Halloween and Brayden's 2nd birthday today!

Night of surgery Brayden slept great, he went to bed around 11 pm and slept until 8:30 am.  The nurses came in every few hours to check on him and good thing they did.  At 4 am, the bed was full of blood.  Either it was from his draining tube or the incision.  Luckily they are here to help and they got new bedding for us and cleaned Brayden up and then we were back to sleep again.

The day after surgery, we went to Dr. Bauer's office and they did the 1st dressing change.  Brayden was not happy about this and cried the whole time.  That area is still so sore from surgery and I can see why he was in so much pain.  I was happy with the results, especially since we only did 5 fills and we were planning on doing 11 fills. 

Dr. Bauer thinks Brayden will need to more round of expanders, we will be booking his next round soon.  Should be in Feb or March sometime.  I am sure that will be here before we know it.

When we were leaving, Mim asked if we would talk to another nevus family and that they have a 5 year old daughter with bathing trunk nevus. She just had a few spots removed off her face and they decided to leave the rest. They were happy to meet another nevus family and also that Brayden's nevus was similar to this girls. I am always happy to share Brayden's journey and to educate other people about him.


 

 
After we left Dr. Bauer's office we were off to have some lunch and then to the hotel to relax for the rest of the day since we had to be up at 4am the next morning.  Every surgery Brayden just amazes me with his strength and how strong he is.  He hardly complained the day after surgery and he even slept through the night without any pain meds.

Thank goodness for the i-pad what a life saver this has been with surgery, recovery and flying with a toddler

 

 
This was the hole on the left expander the day of surgery, so thankful God was watching out for us and we made it to Chicago in time to get these expanders out
 
With my brave boy before surgery

I told Brayden that he needs to wear his cape since he is a super hero and he said no momma, I told him he is very strong and how proud I am of him
 
Brayden with Great Grandpa and Grandma before surgery, so lucky to have them for our support

Playing with toys while waiting for Dr. Bauer
 
Wed morning we were off and flying back to Arizona at 7 am, Brayden was perfect on the flight and he watched his movies and slept most of the flight, didn't cry once.  Once we landed, he was so happy to see daddy again. That night we even took him trick-or-treating.  I couldn't believe that he was walking around and only taking pain meds a few times a day already.  Wow, what a strong little boy he is!
 
Today was Brayden's 2nd birthday.  This was the 1st day, we had the whole day off together as a family.  What needed time this was for all of us after this past stressful month. We started off at the zoo, which Brayden loved.  Then we went to lunch and to the train park.  Was a perfect day!
 
Pretty sure Brayden agreed that he had a pretty awesome birthday!

 

 
Here is Brayden's nevus before

 


Right side before

 


Left side before

 


1st surgery results

 


2nd surgery results

 


3rd surgery results ...very happy with results, especially after the rough round we had

 


Left side ...getting closer to being done

 


Right side....Nevus free!!

 

 
Now we pray that he heals up perfectly and no problems and we can put this round behind us.  I am so happy we started Brayden at such a young age and that he does so great with all these surgeries.  He is such an amazing strong boy and I am so blessed to be his mommy!