Home (again)

For the second time, Ayden has gone home from the hospital.  Much like the last time, there was some last minute things to do:  remove the PICC line, weigh him (6.7 kilos/14.74 lbs), review the discharge papers, pick up his meds (all 11 of them).  Unlike last time, this stay ended one day short of 4 weeks.  Thankfully, that's a far cry from the 11.5 weeks the first time around.

It's barely been 24 hours, but things are going well.  He slept pretty well last night.  (That makes one of us.  With all those meds, on top of his feeding schedule, I got up 7 separate times last night to either feed him or medicate him.  It'll take a few days to adjust his schedule to something more manageable.)  He's fallen back into his daily routine of a couple short morning naps, followed by a long one in the afternoon.

The clinic visit tomorrow will undoubtedly be a test of whether we get to stay home or not.  I'm sure they'll do an x-ray to make sure his lungs are staying clear.

Along the same lines, although we are home with him, his 11 medications are a reminder that he still has some issues to work out.  Please keep him in your prayers going forward.  We need his lungs to stay free of fluid so the diuretics can be weaned and eventually removed.  Getting rid of the diuretics will remove the need to give him potassium.  We also need the sedative taper to go smoothly.  This time, there are three to wean off, over the course of a month.  Those areas represent half of his meds.  Getting rid of those will make all of our lives easier.

Finally, and probably most importantly, we want to get rid of that feeding tube.  We will now be working with him to take from the bottle for the third time.  Please pray the third time's the charm.  If we can get him back to where he was with the bottle before the Glenn, and can get him taking some solids, as well, the tube should be able to come out and never go back in.  It would sure be nice to have more pictures like these (taken yesterday in between pulling the old tube out and putting a new one in the other nostril):