Day 9

Let's get this out of the way first.

We are still at the hospital, still dragging around a chest tube.  We probably will be tomorrow too.

I'm not being negative, just watching the drain level climbing and knowing that he needs to be under 100ml in 24 hours for them to take it out.  Today he did about 175 ml in 12 hours.  Obviously not there yet.

With that said, we had a really great day.

Turns out, on the weekend, doctors don't like to get up early.  So instead of the usual 3:30 am wake up call, we didn't have to do labs until 9.  Add that to me requesting we ditch the midnight breathing treatment, and I dare to say we both got over 6 hours of sleep.  Miraculous what that does for you.

Gabe lounged this morning after labs and his chest X-ray.  Then around 11 he decided he was done laying in the bed.  We played some catch then walked the halls for awhile and hit up the play room for a bit.  I'm not sure where it came from, but I had to scoot to keep up with him.  It was awesome to see that energy and that he wasn't afraid to do so much walking!

My friend Heather, who is one of Gabe's teachers at church, came up to eat lunch with us.

Gabe decided he wanted to eat in the cafeteria so we walked down and waited on her.  We played hockey with the salt shaker and Gabe was laughing so hard.  I'm not going to lie, I cried watching him be him.  I missed that belly laugh like crazy.

Heather ended up staying for a few hours playing with Gabe.  

He was pretty wore out after that, but there was no time for a nap.  We had extra visitors.

My mom had to work this weekend.  She's a flight attendant and just happened to have a long Atlanta layover.  So Andrew's parents went to pick her up and they came to visit for a little bit.  Gabe was kind of grumpy, but I was so proud of how active he was earlier that we let it slide.

A little medical news:

Twice today, Gabe's chest tube detached from the collection tube.

It's a big, scary few minutes getting it reconnected.  If air goes back up the tube into his chest cavity it can be pretty dangerous.  We had to hurry down to X-ray to get another one down to be sure there wasn't any air in there.  Thankfully there wasn't.  Poor Gabe.  He hates that X-ray room.  We rewarded him with a slushy and he was quick to forgive.

In other news, Gabe did NOT throw up today!

It's been a long, long time since I've been able to say that.  Loved not having to clean up puke.  He also took him meds.  Well, I had to hide them in his drinks, but he took them and kept them down.  I got brave at bedtime and had him take his pain meds by mouth and, while he protested by screaming, he was able to take them and keep them down.

I'm hoping for another restful night.  And praying for another great day tomorrow.

Today made me feel a little more prepared for what could be another few days here.  I needed a good, happy day.  We arranged care for Josie in case she comes home before I do and I'm feeling like we are ready for whatever comes.

Although, I'd really like to not eat cafeteria food ever again.