It has been two days since John’s surgery. The first day passed uneventfully.

Today, we had a little fire.

I saw John about an hour after his surgery. He was groggy and floppy yet enjoying a cherry popsicle. Alert and breathing well, the nurse told us we would be leaving in a few minutes. But John finished the popsicle and promptly fell asleep for another 1.5 hours. The nurse turned off the lights and told me to buzz her when he awoke.

Once awake, he enjoyed another popsicle, a chocolate ice cream cup, and some apple juice. He dressed and climbed into the wheelchair. While I walked to the car, he managed to converse with the nurse. He informed her that he would return to this particular hospital for any future surgical procedures as everyone had been nice. The unlimited frozen treats were a positive as well.

We drove home and John asked me to make him a bed on the couch. The evening passed quickly and John slept through the night. He did inform me in the morning that he had served himself two bowls of ice cream during the night. He has been in some pain but, thankfully, Tylenol has been sufficient to take the edge off.

Becky enjoys having John at home. At one point yesterday, John declared that he didn’t think he would make it all week. He was getting bored and might consider an early return to school. But boredom led to inspiration. Honestly, I’m not sure if the kids were playing train, airplane, or waiting at a doctor’s office. But they kept themselves entertained.

I had hoped John wouldn’t remember that he was missing baseball practice. No such luck. He saw the time and was aghast that he wasn’t at the field. When I told him that he couldn’t go, he was baffled and questioned my decision. “Why not, Mom? I just have two holes in my throat.”

Exactly.

John enjoyed another peaceful night. But this morning brought a bit of excitement. I had picked up some kits from our local library. John loves playing with these and I hoped it would help pass the long days. While Becky was enjoying speech therapy, John went to open the large plastic box containing the Osmo Coding Kit. But he placed it on top of a candle that I had forgotten to extinguish. I was upstairs when I heard the fire alarm going off.

I heard the speech therapist yelling “Fire!”. I ran downstairs and smelled smoke but didn’t see any flames. I looked on the back porch and saw the plastic tub in flames. The therapist was able to throw it outside but the fire was engulfing the box. Sam quickly came with a fire extinguisher and all was well. Other than that, it’s been a quiet day.

Oh, I should mention that John does remember a couple of things from his surgery. He saw two big lights and felt a mask covering his mouth. Apparently, everyone was talking about Patrick Mahomes.