Day Two Was Tough - But It Could Always Be Worse

There's no real way to sugar coat things now -- Thursday was tough. During the surgery, doctors had to manipulate the muscles in the neck, pulling them way over to the sides to access the base of the skull and spinal column. If you're like me, those muscles are tight and get pretty sore even during a deep tissue massage. So I can only imagine the pain that he's in right now. On top of that, he has a sore throat and a huge blister on his tongue from the ventilator, which makes eating difficult. He's still on some heavy duty pain meds including Valium, oxycodone, Tylenol and Toradol. Despite this, the poor guy was moaning all night long.

I was totally proud of him yesterday for pushing through the pain and trying his best to do what the doctors and nurses asked him to do. And whoever decided to make liquid Valium taste like black licorice? Seriously? What kid likes black licorice?!

So the goal was to get him up and moving, which he did like a champ, and to get him moving his neck -- which is NOT easy. We were joking that he could master "The Robot".


But one day, one step at a time, he's still in a lot of pain and really struggling to even lie comfortably in bed. He really appreciates all of the comments and especially the videos from his friends and family. It is really the only thing that will make him crack a smile.

He met with the physical therapist who walked him through some exercises, with the help of a little morphine.

He was even able to walk down the hall and even did a flight of stairs!

While Cannon is pushing through the pain and really making us proud, we are so thankful because it can always be worse. There's nothing more sobering than being in a hospital surrounded by sick children with cancer, and other life threatening diseases. So while we will share Cannon's experiences, please know that all in all we are truly thankful for a boy who is healthy overall and may even get to go home today, unlike many children here, may never leave this hospital.
Thank you for all your prayers and well wishes. We hope to leave today (Friday) to get back to Mountain Lakes for the weekend (fingers crossed)!