Saturday morning, 11:30 a.m.

this is Paul - my first official post!

Henry had a really good night of sleep, just woke up once for a little pain medicine, then slept till 6:30. We are trying to get by today with just Tylenol, no morphine.....we'll see how that goes. Dr. Einhaus came by early and said that he was looking great, he has only minimal swelling, much less than normal. Henry stood up and took a few steps (with Dad hanging on) for her. Later, Dr. Wheless visited and has allowed Henry to remove all the wires/monitors that he had on. He still has the IV board on his right hand in case we need it for anything (like morphine). Dr. Wheless felt that Henry might be able to go home on Monday - so stay tuned for a definite answer!

Henry has had a few very slight "twitches" this morning - maybe 6-7 or so. These are the seizures that we have lived with for so long, but they appear to be very much reduced in terms of severity. They seem mostly confined to his left arm/side, not his whole body. Also, we saw these between 6:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m. , haven't seen any since. Drs. Wheless and Einhaus are not surprised by these at all, as Henry's surgery was intended to stop the seizure activity from traveling from one side of his brain to the other, not actually stop the seizure from starting. However, the surgery has in fact, stopped ALL seizures for some kids. Also, Dr. Einhaus has told us that sometimes in the days immediately following surgery, there can be some seizures that cease later, we'll just have to see. Since Henry is not really walking around or even sitting up by himself yet, it is hard to tell if the few slight twitches that we have seen would have been a "drop", which he had so many of, before surgery. Time will tell.

By the way, Dr. Einhaus also explained to us that we should remove Henry's bandage on his head on Thursday. Just rub gently with soapy water till it comes off - that's it! Brain surgery.......big "band-aid" for a week.....then just take it off. It just seems amazing that is all there is to it.

At 10:00 a.m. today they had a pet therapy time downstairs, so we broke Henry out of room 5608 for a trip in one of Le Bonheur's famous red wagons. We got to meet Bonnie, the Giant Schnauzer and just stroll around the hospital for awhile. It's kinda quiet around here with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Holly and Uncle John gone, so we gotta make our own fun.

Well, the Little Einsteins' marathon is starting, so we gotta sign off for now.