One month later (a week late)

I can’t believe that it’s been 5 weeks since Piper’s surgery.  Man, oh man, has time flown! 

Piper celebrated her 5 week anniversary by sleeping through the night for the first time since going into the hospital (actually, that’s a lie- she slept the first night, and then decided it was overrated.  I, however, have not shared that perspective…).  Guess that means she’s on the mend!

She celebrated her four week anniversary with a big-girl bath!  Complete with lots of bubble blowing, chest-soaking, splish-splashing FUN!

The incision itself is looking pretty good.  We’re hopeful that it’ll get less and less noticeable as time goes on.  I think it’s still a little tender (although, admittedly, her pain threshold is a little tender, too, lol) because she doesn’t really like me touching it.  At all.  She’s really defensive about her chest still (and the muscles in her shoulders, too), and doesn’t even like some of her shirts that rub her funny.  I have to keep her from scratching  a lot; it looks so painful when she’s pulling on it.  I do think, though, that it’s getting better, so that’s what matters.

Her sticky-outty sternum is still there, although I do think it looks a little bit better every day.  I’m pretty sure that she’s probably inhaling in this picture, which makes it stick out more, but it definitely didn’t do it before.  Kinda breaks my heart a little, but again, hoping that it settles down as she gains a little weight and the bones heal more.  Better to have a sticky-outty than having no idea what’ll happen if she got a cold, right?

Lifting the lifting-restrictions comes next- and I couldn’t be more excited.  Since she seems to be a little tender, I’m not sure that we shouldn’t hold off until closer to the 8 week mark for doing lots of under-arm holding, but it’ll still be nice to do little bits here and there.  Woohoo.  Can’t believe it’s almost over!!!