Some Good Steps

The best news is that Jack got his chest tubes pulled today. This was the major thing that we were waiting on to get to go home. The big test will be tomorrow morning's chest x-ray and echocardiogram. But if both of those tests show that he's not accumulating fluid, then we should get to go home tomorrow! So we're crossing our fingers that tomorrow night Jack will get to sleep in his own bed again.

He did very well with getting his tubes taken out, though I'm sure it was uncomfortable. They gave him a dose of Versed, which is the same thing they gave him before he went back to the operating room. It basically makes them sort of drunk and loopy - removing anxiety, inhibitions, and balance all at once. It's a pretty good medicine though, because it also means that they don't usually remember what happened to them either. He was pretty grouchy for a few hours, but he seemed to be in a really good mood again once it wore off. The best part of getting his chest tubes removed was that he was allowed to leave the floor and check out some other parts of the hospital. They have a really cool interactive model train exhibit in one of the other buildings, so we all walked over there before Elijah left. They both seemed to really enjoy watching all the different parts move, including a tiny carnival complete with ferris wheel, roller coaster, and bumper cars. But Jack's favorite part may have been just getting to push the buttons on the elevator... always a hit.

Today would have been Jack and Elijah's first day of preschool if we weren't in the hospital. It was fun to see pictures of several of his buddies going, and I was a little sad that he had to miss it. But luckily he won't know any difference when he gets to start in a month or so. But I was glad to hear that everyone had such a good day at PeeWee School.