Two weeks post-surgery and I feel like all we do is mess with pills- pain pills, pill refills, don’t overdose on pills, did you take your pills while I was out? TJ is taking the maximum allowed amount of narcotics right now to keep pain under control, but now we’re wondering if it’s also the reason for his increased brain fog over the last couple of days. It’s hard not to fall into a pit of depression when your brain isn’t able to focus on school work or even a favorite video game. So it becomes this balancing act of getting the right amount of sleep (not too much, not too little.), should we move certain medications to a different time, should we ask for different types of medicine? The sleep factor seems to be a huge issue this past week as I had picked up two very late shifts to make up for being gone for the surgery. It ended up to where TJ slept for about 18 hours straight those two days, which made him depressed since he had wasted the day and had nothing to show for it. But his sense of balance is to the point where he no longer needs the walker to get around! On Friday, TJ started his Methotrexate injection again. We won’t see any results from that for a couple of weeks, but it’s a step in the right direction. It will slow down his immune response, thereby preventing his body from attacking muscles and skin; this should drastically reduce his pain.

For Halloween yesterday, he forced me to watch a horror movie. UGH! I cannot do scary. But we made it through Ghost Ship…he had to stand guard at the bathroom door afterwards for me just in case the Ferriman showed up…but we made it! TJ definitely encourages me to get outside my comfort zone, and I appreciate that. He’s also willing to don my creative, yet terribly put together, idea for Halloween costumes. I thought that since Lacy is so fluffy, she could be a sheep. So we put numbers on her and she was a counting sheep (count your sheep to fall asleep!). It turned out terrible, but TJ’s such a good sport and wore numbers with me! I’m so thankful to have him in my life!

-April Mae