Going Home Today

It is truly amazing what more than two hours sleep in four days can do for you! I actually slept about five or six hours last night. I slept so hard that when a nurse came in this morning I could neither focus nor conversate with her. I actually thought it was a dream until later she laughed and told me that it was all too real. Luckily she cut me slack for exhaustion and didn't hold my drooling incoherence against me. At any rate....with sleep comes perspective.

David gets to go home today. A part of me wants to shout it to the roof tops and plan the rest of my day(yes...I said the dreaded word). However, instead of an insanely, over the top, gushingly optimistic diatribe...I will just give you the facts.

Since being here we have seen the pediatrician hospitalist (I believe that is what they are called), neurologist, orthopedist and wound specialist and all are attached to teams of residents and students. Needless to say we have a steady stream of doctors/residents/students coming in and out, making rounds and teaching as they go. David usually gets extra attention because apparently he is an excellent teaching tool. Go figure. This morning has been no different and we have had a packed house since early. Luckily they have all been on the same page....David can be dismissed. 

The neurologist and team says that he thinks the seizures were brought on by a cocktail of pain, fever and another traumatic surgery involving hardware. He doesn't anticipate further issues but if they happen again,  we will adjust meds and the VNS until they go away.

Ortho and team says that they think he is doing well. He will keep the splint on for three weeks. At that point he will come back in for out patient surgery to re xray and make sure the bone is healing well and then the splint will be removed and a real cast will take its place. That will then be worn for another three weeks. At that point the bone should be healed and hardcore physical therapy can commence.

The wound team looked at the places on his ankle and knee that the spika brace had been rubbing despite my best efforts to keep the areas rub free. All are now bandaged and since it will be at least six weeks before we need the brace again....hopefully by then all will be healed.

The pediatric team concurs with the other teams and although his white count was a little high and they want me to follow up with Dr. P, they think he is good to go with the addition to his medicine repertoire of Calcium plus Vitamin D and Magnesium, two things his body was low on. From the sounds of it....you all better be buying stock in the vitamin Calcium +D because David is going to need a truck load.

So I guess, before long we are heading home...by EMS of course! I gotta make those people some cheesecakes!

It occurred to me last night, that as much time as we seem to spend getting our frequent hospital flyer miles in not just one but two states, we don't spend nearly as much time as some do listening to monitors going off and watching doctors traipse in and out. I still think of little Hadley Walker who is back in New York spending months in the hospital away from home and dealing with surgery, chemo and radiation. I know her parents are worn and little Hadley's body is exhausted fighting this fight. I also think of Adele White who has spent most of the last year with her family going back and forth to Kansas City, St. Louis and Oklahoma City fighting her fight against the dreaded disease cancer. Both families know all too well the exhaustion, fear, long hours of waiting and sometimes frustration that comes from days on end of hospital stays. The roller coaster ride of emotions and the times you spend praying, crying, fearing the worst and hoping for the best are draining and the times when you are tied to the room are the worst. You have no concept of time or the life that is going on outside your hospital walls. You live on hospital food or the generous donations of friends who bring you food and you dream about the day when your child is healthy and you never have to see the inside of that building or any other building like it again. No child should have to count their childhood by hospital stays, however both Hadley and Adele seem to be doing an amazing job of kicking cancers butt!

Please keep Hadley, Adele and yes....David in your prayers. And on that note with no pomp and circumstance or over the top gushing....I say Thank you God....we're going home today!