ONE WEEK ................

One week down. It seems like I was at school so long ago, its hard to believe that last week I was there and now I'm laying in this hopital bed at home. I am feeling pretty good. The plan right now is to come back to school next week. Maybe even for half days at first. I took a shower last night and that felt great. My mom and dad are taking phenomenal care of me and I want to thank them for everything they do for me. I love you. Brenden

DAY 6

Well tomorrow will be one week. I'm feeling better everyday. Craig, my therapist is coming today at 11am. My mom is not very excited about that though. She is a Giant fan and Craig is an Eagel fan. Hopefully he can show her some ways to help me stretch while laying in bed. I go back to the doctor on Friday to have my incisions checked out. I am up for visitors whenever anyone has time. Call my mom and come see us...Brenden

I AM HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I knew if I thought positve I would have a better day. I had my last intravenus dose of medicine at 4am. Then I never needed them again. I got home around 6pm. Some friends decorated my house for a really nice welcome home. Now I'm hanging out with Lauren and Mairead in my hospital bed at home in my living room. Even if I don't feel 100% I am soooo happy to be home. Oh yeah, by the way, Molly if you read this you totally read my mind. I have been talking to my legs for 2 days now. Telling them to "stop". I know you went through the same surgery. Could you email me at brendenleventhal@yahoo.com so I can chat with you? That's all for now. And now I only have to take 2 medicines : ) Brenden

Night Three......

Well I must say that today has been the worst day so far for me. The doctors turned the epideral off today at 8am. They started that oral medicine I was telling you about. " YUCK" does not even describe the awful taste. I am taking 4 by mouth and 2 intravenously. I can not go home until I stop taking the intravenous ones. My legs keep having muscle spasm and that makes me go through the roof with pain!!!!!!! The nurses and doctors have all been very nice. The best nurse , by far , has been Mrs. Carter. She is a friend of ours from Cheshire and she is the nurse manager on my floor. She hooked us up with the private room and .........guess what? She let my sister Sarah come to see me tonight (even though she is not really old enough). Josh came too, of course, and that was the best thing that happend today. I also got a chance to talk with Mr. Kaplan. He called me on the telephone. Thanks for that I enjoyed talking to you today. You happend to call at an okay time. I have a few good minutes and some really painful ones too, so if you've tried calling and I could'nt talk today, I'm so sorry. I want to talk to all my friends but I am not always ready. I hope for a better day tomorrow, because that is all I can do. Bye for now. Brenden

Night two.......

Ok well I had a very interesting day. Physical Theropy came today and got me up in the wheel chair. We went for a walk to the playroom and the library. I took out four books. I'm on page 50 of the first and I love it. I had a surprise visitor today.......Mr. Daley, my school gym teacher came to see me!!!!! Thanks Mr. Daley that was so awesome to see you. Not to mention that he brought with him gifts for me from my WHOLE ENTIRE SCHOOL! Wow!!!! You are all sooooo great. I got a gift certificate to our local town bookstore, some really cool red sox baseball cards, an ipod shuffle ,red , and it is even engraved with BL you rock from Doolittle School, and an itunes gift card. OMG, that was way to kind. Later in the day a child life specialist came to my room and asked me if I wanted to make a video, I said yes. We started it today and we will finish it tomorrow and.............We are going to post it here on my blog so you can all see it. Then after dinner another music specialist came in and was teaching me how to play "smoke on the water" on the guitar. How awesome. Tomorrow morning the doctor is planning on taking the epideral out and starting me on the oral pain meds. If that works I should be home on Friday. So other than my itchy back (from all this tape) I am comfortable. More tomorrow...Brenden

The first 24 hours....

Well I'm glad that part is over. My mom came back into the operating room with me and held my hand while I was breathing in this sour green apple medicine. I had to use this mask to cover my mouth and after about 8 big deep breaths I was sound asleep. I was in surgery for about 2 3/4 hours and then was off to the recovery room. The doctor told my parentst that everything went really well. There was minimal blood loss , if any at all , he took the hardware out of my right tibia, and then flipped me over onto my belly and fixed my left femor. I have a big foam wedge between my legs and straps around my legs to keep them still. I do not have a cast, just some bandages. The medicine is really helping because I do not feel any pain in my legs. I was really sick to my stomach all day yesterday from the anesthesia. YUCK! What a gross taste in my mouth. Maybe today I will eat something, I have only been taking small bites of chicken soup. The epidermal in my back will most likely be taken out tomorrow. That means I will have to switch over to taking medicine for the pain orally. EEEWWW! The hospital bed my parents ordered for me is being delivered to the house today at 3pm. It looks like I will be home either late Thursday afternoon or Friday. It all depends on how the pain is when they take the epideral out. I really miss home and all my friends. I especialy miss my sister and brother. It is RSV season (cold and flu) and so you have to be 12 years old to visit someone at the hospital. My sister is only 7. My brother could come but that is not very far to Sarah. Write to me if you want, this is fun reading everyones letters. Thank you for all your prayers. Brenden

Surgery time 9am .......
We will be leaving the house around 7am tomorrow morning. I need to be there at 7:45 but we have to check in first with the admissions office. I plan on taking a nice long hot bath tonight because I won't be able to do that for a long time. I packed my bag with my psp and some games, my book (of course) and "Blackie", my favorite teddy bear. When my mom gets home from the hospital, sometime tomorrow night, she will be back in touch for me. Can't wait to come back home to see all my friends. See you soon...................Brenden