Day Nine

Nothing involving the hospital (or even more generally, doctors) happens all that fast. This includes being discharged, which is what Ayden was today.

Organizing my Flying Pig Mail-- Thank you!

As I said yesterday, the only thing that had been holding him back was needing oxygen. Well, he passed the test last night and stayed off of it. This morning, the current attending cardiologist on the floor, who also happens to specialize in electrophysiology (someone who studies the electrical aspects of the heart) and who is very familiar with Ayden and his history, had taken a look at Ayden's heart rhythm from the preceding 24 hours. His analysis was that most of the time, Ayden was in a sinus rhythm, which is what we want. Even though Ayden's rhythm was still junctional at times, he was comfortable with what he saw. Given the attending's emphasis, I do have some (but not total) peace of mind about this.

I have found my left foot!
(but not my right... not yet!)

Regardless, the important thing is Ayden is home. He's currently trying to fall asleep in his own bed. I don't know if he's happy about that, but I am sure looking forward to sleeping in mine. (Allison was kind enough to let me get in a brief nap after we got home, but that's just not the same.)

We all get to go on wagon rides!

He's still prone to randomly getting upset, which is to be expected. However, he's already started talking more than he did in the hospital. At dinner, he started randomly pointing out and naming objects, which is what he normally does. He played with his blocks and his cars. He looked at some of his books. He walked around quite a bit. He even stood up on his own several times, which I know can't be all that comfortable for him (think about pushing off of the floor with yours arms a week after having your rib cage cracked open).

All of that is encouraging, but the best thing he has done since he got home was to show significant interest in food. He asked for several different pieces of candy. (He likes gnawing on Airheads. And before you think us bad parents, he doesn't actually eat any of it, though if he actually wanted to bite of a piece, chew, then swallow, I'd be all for it.) He then indicated he was hungry. For dinner, he went through at least two dozen cheese puffs (again, biting without eating), some pizza (ditto), a portion of a Gerber Grabber (actually consumed), and an eight ounce mixture of formula and water.

Jude, we are prayerful that your stay is short!

Not surprisingly, we were somewhat concerned about backsliding in the eating department after surgery. His rather consistent protests over the last several days didn't do much to assuage those concerns. Discovering today that he'd lost almost two pounds since the surgery didn't help, either. Although he's no longer underweight, he doesn't have a whole lot of reserves to draw on (Brogan, on the other hand . . . ). We are really hoping tonight is an indication that we won't backslide much, if at all. We'll be working hard to get him back up to his fighting weight. If we don't, by the time he's one, Brogan might outweigh Ayden.

Good times!

As I've said, going home is not the same as staying home. Please pray that we get to stay away from the hospital. Even though it was only nine days, they were a hard nine days for our little fire. In addition to the damage done by the surgery, all of the adhesives from dressings, leads, and the like did a number on his skin. Two of the leads pulled off today, which had been on for less than 24 hours, essentially burned his skin. We had to get a prescription for a topical cream that's used to treat chemical burns. In all, he looks like he's been in a car accident. Please also pray for a minimal amount of pain and discomfort during a hopefully quick healing process.

Time for some rest, Buddy!