Fostering Friday: Recovering From Surgery

Welcome to Fostering Fridays! Our hope is that you will be able to get a taste of what it's like to foster by reading our experiences and thoughts!

One thing fostering does for you is expand your life experiences.

The little guy we have currently, whom we affectionetly call "Little Mr", has had two surgeries since we got him in November. 

Little Mr moved in the day before Thanksiving and the following Monday we were in the next town over having a double eye surgery. 

I felt so bad for him that week. He didn't hardly know me from Adam and here I was, having to hold him down to put eye ointment in his eyes three times a day. What a lot for a 3 year old to take in! Needless to say, there was a huge amount of bonding that happened through that. As he learned that we were just doing what we had to do to help his eyes be healthy and strong. 

This last surgery was a couple weeks ago. He needed to have his adnoids and tonsils taken out. The recovery period for this was surprisingly much longer than his eye surgery. With his eye surgery, he only missed one week of school for recovery. He still had some restrictions in place at home and school, but he was able to get right back into things.

With this surgery, he spent two weeks at home and only just started back to school on the third week. Even then, the restrictions were in place still for another week. Besides the obvious restrictions of no scratchy foods, there were also restrictions to what kind of activity he could do. No running, no jumping, no gymnastics....no being a boy! Granted for the first full week, he had no desire to do any of that anyway. But the second week at home was a doozy! Poor kid, every time you turned around, you had to ask him to stop being crazy cause it could accidently rip out the stictches in his throat. 

As hard as the last couple weeks have been, I have seen some really positive things come out of this adnoid and tonsil surgery:

• Even more bonding, not just between him and I, but bonding between him and all the other members of the family.
• Better sleep for Little Mr means better attitude and adjustment all around!
• A sweet, sweet spirit about him as he gets better and better.
• Less melt-downs. The few he has had have been because he was super tired as he is still recovering and wears out easily.
• He went back to school with a joy and happiness to go. This is new! Up till now he has thrown a fit and had anxiety attacks when I leave. So far, no anxiety and no crying when I leave!

Yes, being a foster parent certainly expands your experiences! I have had to go through neither of these surgeries with my own kiddos. Being able to be a temporary mama to this little one while he goes through this stuff has been an amazing and wonderful experience. 

Till next time...

Have a blessed day and embrace the craziness in your life!

Heidi

Numbers 6:24-26