Pills In The Pancakes - Day 6

Gabe had a really excellent afternoon yesterday.

He was much more talkative and even a bit sassy.  He ate quite a bit, and even though he still threw up a few times, he never complained.  He cooperated with the nurses.  Basically, it was the exact opposite of Monday.

It did us so good to see him acting like himself.

As you can see, they did remove one of his chest tubes.  I'm not sure if that contributed to his improved attitude, but I'm sure it was at least part of it.  Those things cannot be comfortable.

He still won't willingly take any meds by mouth.

I've taken to sprinkling them in his yogurt, mixing them with Sprite, and pretending to only give half when he's really getting the whole dose.  Basically, Gabe is going to have trust issues forever.

I thought I was especially clever when I folded a pill into his pancake and fed it to him.  I watched him swallow it while he watched TV and gave myself a pat on the back for being so sneaky.  Ten seconds later, he cut his eyes at me and said, "I ate dat hidden pwill."

So much for being sneaky.

He had a few fun visitors.

Nana and Papa Curt came up with lunch (that he devoured) and then Kelsey drove up for a few hours.  It was nice to see him enjoy having people around again.  Kelsey and I even snuck in a coffee date in the cafeteria.  Loved getting out of the room for just a few minutes.

We were both super happy when Andrew walked in.

He had to work yesterday, but is off today and tomorrow.  Hoping we are out of here not far after he goes back to work on Friday.

Gabe woke up happy again today.

We are hoping to find an end to the throwing up and to keep him eating more and more each day.  He did finally poop last night so that is one less thing on our "Must Do Before Going Home" list.  Still need to work on taking his meds orally and walking.

After the results of his chest X-ray were in, it was decided that there was enough change in the fluid on the left side of his heart that he doesn't need a new tube placed yet.  They are going to keep monitoring it in the daily chest X-ray and as long as it does go down some each day, he won't have to have a new one.

The remaining tube is still draining quite a bit of fluid so they bursted my bubble by telling me it is very doubtful it will get pulled tomorrow.  We are looking at Friday or Saturday at the earliest, followed by a 24 hour observation to be sure no new fluid accumulates before we can go home.

He had more respiratory therapy and and ECHO and they had to replace his IV.  Poor kid has no more veins they can use since he's on the verge of dehydration from the throwing up and diuretics, so this one needs to last.

Other then that, today has been another fabulous day!

Gabe is acting very much like himself.  A little more cautious since he has 10 wires and tubes coming out of his chest, but he is spunky and very, very talkative.  Our days are starting at 3:30 or 4 AM and the door to his room seems to be revolving so there isn't much sleep during the day.  I've quit trying to make him nap and settled for what little resting time I can get.

This morning I had to attend a discharge class where they went over all the medication Gabe will go home on.  Most of it is very temporary, but I'm going to need an excel spreadsheet to keep up with it all.

Amber, Olivia, and Amelia came up for lunch.  Gabe is needing to consume as much salt as possible so ChickFilA with extra salt is on the menu as much as he wants.  The rest of us aren't complaining.

Our church has been so extremely supportive.

The hospital we are at is an hour away from our town, but that hasn't stopped 4 different pastors from coming up on different days to check on us and pray with Gabe.  My small group has rallied around us and been so encouraging to me personally.  I've never been more proud to be a part of this church.

The whole day was good, but the highlight for all of us?

Uno the therapy dog!

Uno does rounds with the doctors on the cardiac floor.  Gabe has missed rounds since we've been here for different procedures he's had to do, but today Uno made a special trip to our room to help Gabe after a traumatic IV change.  This dog was SO sweet and Gabe was instantly in love.

He even got out of bed and took Uno for a walk!  Gabe hasn't taken more than a few steps at a time since Friday so watching him walk the entire perimeter of the cardiac floor was a huge accomplishment!

Not gonna lie, I almost promised to get him a dog of his own for being so brave.

Almost.

We celebrated with a long walk around the hospital and a bag of doritos.

Which he promptly threw up in the lobby.

I'm so glad we had such a great day.  Praying for more like this one.

What we are needing to happen now:

The biggest thing today is we need to figure out why he keeps throwing up.  His low sodium and electrolyte levels can't be fixed if he's going to puke everything that he eats.

Dehydration is also a major concern since it effect heart kids so much more extremely.  We are walking a fine line with giving diuretics to get the fluid off and letting too much fluid get off which would cause him to dehydrate.  So far he is drinking a lot so we aren't too concerned yet.

We also need tomorrow's chest X-ray to be less wet then today's.  We want to avoid another chest tube as much as possible.  Not only would it cause us to have to stay here even longer, but it would be extremely uncomfortable for Gabe.  I do not want to go back to where we were a few days ago with him emotionally.

Be thinking of Josie.  She is having an excellent time and even got a new American Girl today.  She's being spoiled and getting to play with friends and family that we don't get to see often.  But nights are getting harder for her.  She's starting to miss us and home and while I love that she loves us, I'm praying she could go through this trip having such a blast that she rarely thinks of us.