August 31 - 3 PM

Payton is out of surgery and all of the drains are removed and the bone flap has been returned to his head. Amazing how much better he looks with his forehead back to it's original shape. From the front he looks completely normal, the incision was shaved again and to our surprise he has another railroad track of staples installed in addition to his sutures. They did wash his hair this time and cleaned him up a little better, to us he looks GREAT! The surgeon told us to just take him into a local doctor in a week or so to get the staples out. I can't wait to see the look on Dr. Sharps face when we he comes into the patient room and we ask him to take all of those staples out, it may take while.

His brain is still swollen some and the surgeon said that the brain will be getting over the trauma for a while. As it continues to heal Payton should get better detail and better motor skills. We are so happy to see each bit of progress.

After the surgery we have been moved to the Neuro-Science Trauma Unit, a step under ICU. It will be much quieter here and the constant monitoring he has been under will go from every 15 minutes to 2 hours after he fully recovers from the anesthesia. His pretty sleepy but has responded well when we talk t0 him. Both Angie and I have noticed lot more spark and life in his eyes the past 24 hours, not just the tired lifeless shark like eyes he has had the past few days.
As he wakes up the nurses expect that he will come to life quite a bit the next few hours and then continue to improve at a rapid pace. In talking to surgeons, nurses and staff here this is a very rare situation. Many have never heard of a sinus infection causing anything like this. And the treatment and recovery have been remarkable and miraculous.

The other good news we received today is that Payton might get to go home and continue his recovery as early as Monday. That would be FANTASTIC and so much better for all of us. He keeps talking of wanting to watch the big screen sitting in the Love Sac, I am sure he will get his fair share of that for a couple of weeks.

Angie stayed with Payton last night and I went home. I was just getting ready to go for a short bike ride when Angie's dad Craig called and needed help. He had an accident on his bike earlier in the day and was in a lot of pain and very limited in his movement. I went to his home on my bike thinking we could get him comfortable pretty quick but after looking at the raspberry on his left hip and butt and seeing how much pain he was in we decided to take a trip to the AF Emergency Room. So the paybacks came quirky, He had helped Angie get Payton out to the car last week to go to the same place. This time it was my turn to help him, he was in a lot of pain and we had to be inventive to get him in the car. He had an X-ray, nothing broken but a nice bruise and a whole field of raspberries on his hip and arm that will sting for a while. So even on a night I thought I would be away from the hospital, I actually was right back in it.

Saturday and Sunday Payton will be able to see visitors and we welcome all to come for a short visit. He gets tired easily but he responds well to familiar faces coming in to say a quick hi. If you come, he is in room 2031 in the Neuro-Science Trauma unit at Primary Children's.

I know it sounds redundant but we are so grateful for all of the thoughts, prayers and actions in our behalf. It has made this situation much easier to bear for us. We are grateful of it's outcome to this point, realizing that there are many cases here that do not have the same conclusion. Seeing the parents and loved ones of those that are not responding reminds us of our blessings but they have a special place in our hearts as we pray for peace and comfort to come over them in their trials. I am sure like many of you we will never forget our experience here and we will be so much more understaing and empathetic to those who face these challenges. That is definitely one of the positives we will take from this experience