Follow-up appointment with Dr. Brenner
Today we packed the kids up and headed back to JHU for our follow-up appointment with Corey's PC, Dr. Brenner. We warned Corey that his stitches would be coming out today, that he'd have a finger stick, and that he'd have to talk to Dr. Brenner, but we assured him that he'd be coming home with us. No more spending the night at Hopkins! Corey was fine with this arrangement, and he was not nervous at all for the trip.In addition to the other fun events planned four our appointment, we had an echo. Though Corey wasn't expecting this, he simply watched "Shrek" and chatted up the tech the whole time. He didn't even complain when we asked him to take his shirt off, which shocked me, as this has been a major point of contention at Chez Corey since the surgery. He was a bit put off when she ran the camera over his stitches, and he looked at me with woeful eyes and made the sign for "all done". But to his credit he soldiered on.
When it came time to have his stitches removed, he asked everyone but the nurse removing the stitches to leave the room. Even Mommy. As in, "Mommy, leave." Alrighty then. So I stood outside the door and waited to be called back in. As I was standing there in the hallway, twiddling my thumbs, Dr. Brenner strolled by and asked where Corey was and who was with him. I told him. Dr. Brenner registered a look of surprise and said, "That's very mature". He was impressed by how well Corey is doing emotionally after all he's endured.
Some short time later, Corey called for us to reenter the room, and he announced that his stitches were out and his finger prick (done to check his coumadin levels) was all done. That's my big tough guy!
We spoke with Dr. Brenner about how Corey is faring (well by all accounts), discussed his meds, and talked about restrictions to activity. The good news is that Corey can start going to the mall and library school/etc., again (yay!). The bad news is that he can't ride his bike for 2 months! There is a risk of improper healing if we allow him to get injured at this point, so we'll have to go with better safe than sorry. But he is going to be so jealous when his little girlfriend Phoebe goes by on her bike. I don't look forward to that. I do look forward to nearly all else getting back to normal, though. Whatever that is.