National Tube Removal Day

Finally.

Finally, finally, finally.

No more drainage box.  No more long tubes to trip over.  The chest tube is gone!

I'm not sure what caused the sudden drop off in fluids.  To go from near 250 a day to 30 a day isn't very common.  But then again, we've never been too common.

I was a little anxious this morning when they came in for rounds.  You'd think, after a kid has had a tube in their chest for 13 days, you would bust in yelling, "Let's take that tube out!"

Instead they started by going over all his blood work, output numbers, "how do you think he's feeling?".  With every number they rattled off, the more I thought today wouldn't be the day.  But right before they walked out, they said they would be removing the tube at 10 am.  That we should be ready for discharge by lunch tomorrow.

He has won the heart of every nurse here.  It's been fun sharing his story.

And just like that, our stay is near over.

14 days.

It's a nice even number, two complete weeks rounded out.  We can fall back into our life on the same day we left it, like those two weeks never happened.

But we know they did.

We can see it in Gabe's pink lips.  His energy already exhausting me.  Our boy is amazing.  I can't wait to see him ride his bike again.

It's been 2 weeks since I was able to hug him.  I squeezed long and hard.

Removing the tube is kind of awful.

They literally pull the tube out of the chest.  He got a heavy IV pain killer at 9 and then another that wipes their memory at 10.  It helps knowing he won't remember the actual removal.

The hole on the right is from the first tube removed, the left is covered until tomorrow.

Last night, Gabe decided to start taking his meds without fighting too.

He is still very vocal about how much he hates all of them, but he'll take them.  One step closer to home.

The rest of the day we spent in a celebratory mood.

A couple of good friends brought us lunch and we had a great visit.  After that, Gabe and I enjoyed our new found freedom by roaming the halls.  Only tethered to each other when he reached up to grab my hand.

Bless the inventor of FaceTime

And now I need to figure out how on Earth I'm going to pack this room up to head home.