Going Home - Thursday

Jace's heart rate and oxygen sats. were okay over night.  He was pretty restless from about 3:00 - 4:00.  He just couldn't seem to get settled.  I crawled up in the bed with him and then it didn't take him too long to go back to sleep.  When they came in to do his labs, his IV wouldn't draw so they had to stick him.  Thankfully, this was the last time he would have to be stuck.

During rounds, they said his chest x-ray looked great and they thought he was ready to be discharged.  That was wonderful news to us.  We asked Jace if he was ready to go home and he said "Naw".  I think he has really liked all the attention he has had from the nurses, except for the vitals and sticks.  He loved them as long as they didn't have on gloves.  When they would get a pair of gloves out, he would start to get upset.  He knew something bad was getting ready to happen. 



Resting up for the ride home.


We loaded up our car, said our good-byes to the nurses, and put Jace in a wagon to leave.  We were finally on our way home!



Getting ready to leave.





Leaving 6-C





Waiting on the elevator.





Almost to the car





On our way home!!!!


We arrived home about 2:30.  I expected Jace to be tired and want to lie down and rest for awhile.  He was so wobbly yesterday we were worried if he would be able to walk.  Boy was I wrong!  It only took him a few minutes after seeing his toys, to get down and start playing.  His legs were still wobbly at first, but he walked a lot better than I was expecting.  We have had to put a few of his things up already because he was trying to climb and carry them around.  I am afraid we are going to have a hard time trying to limit his activities for the next few weeks.  We see the Pediatrician in the morning.  I am anxious to see what she has to say about him.

As far as his recovery goes, we do have some restrictions.  We can't pick him up under his arms for 6 weeks.  Since his sternum was broken for surgery, it needs time to heal.  We also have to watch that he doesn't try to pull up on things.  We have to take extra precautions with his incision.  It has to be cleaned a certain way and we have to try and keep his hands off of it.  It has a dermabond coating over it now.  After a few days, it will begin to crack and peel off.  When it does, it itches, but they don't want him scratching it.  I'm not sure how that is going to go though.  They don't want his incision submerged in water, so that means no pool for him for 6 weeks.  The biggest thing to his recovery is the hardest.  We are basically going on "house arrest" as we refer to it.  We have to keep Jace in and away from people as much as possible.  The only place they want us to take him to is the doctor for the next few weeks.  They also told us to limit our visitors at home as much as possible.  They told us if he gets a fever or catches something, it will put him back in the hospital.  They will have no way of knowing if it is a virus or something wrong with his heart.  I have a feeling we will be going through a lot of sanitizer the next few weeks.  I am thankful it is pretty weather now, so we can at least take him outside in the stroller some. 

Thanks again everyone for all the prayers and calls.  He has done better than we could have ever hoped for and I know it is all because of prayer!!