Boring Life in Step-Down

Joey is busy doing, well - nothing :) He is hanging out in the step-down unit, called "HKU" among other old friends. We love the nurses here, too, and they are all amazed at how big our little boy has gotten and how great he looks!

No more oxygen through the nasal tube, he's breathing room air and loving it. Much better than trying to scratch out the cannula anyway. This is a huge test, as his lungs are a little hazy on x-ray, meaning there is still some fluid there. With the increased movement, coughing, and Lasix the hope is this will quickly decrease. Also, he's receiving respiratory therapy (RT) for "chest PT" to help his move that fluid and keep coughing. He actually likes the cupping pounding on his back. I told him some people pay big money for specialty massage like that!

His cheeks are so rosy! With that VSD (hole) closed, the blood is now circulating the way it should, delivering oxygen-rich blood to his body, and he has the beautiful pink color to prove it.

His incision is healing nicely, although the wound-care will continue. Also, for the next several weeks we will have to be extra careful with his chest, including how we bath him, how we position him, and how we pick him up. That sternum (breastbone) needs some time to heal.

Oh can that boy eat! Well, he didn't grow those cheeks by passing up meals, that's for sure. The nurses still laugh that the fact that we worked so hard to get him to take a full 2 ounces of milk just 2 months ago. Tonight he just ate 9 ounces in 4 hours time. Yup. He's serious about this food!

SPOILED BOY! He loves having all these nurses at his beck and call. Which he does, often. :) And they love it.

Tuesday morning they will look at another chest xray, more labs for blood count and electrolytes, see how his pain meds are working. He will also have an echo done to take a look at all the repairs and measure pressures in various parts of his heart. This gives an objective reading of how his heart is responding to the repair, as it basically is a change in anatomy. The heart, including that darn valve, has to adjust to the corrected blood flow.

If all this goes well we could be looking toward to front door as early as Wednesday! Keep up those prayers, it would be GREAT to be home in such a short time!