Spoiler Alert: We Are Home!

We got up early this morning to head back up to Egelston for our third post op appointment.

Our Post Post Post Op, if you will.

The doctor had told us to plan to be admitted for a few days, so we had our bags with us.  Andrew and I had talked to Gabe about getting the tube put back in and prepared him as much as we could to spend the night in the hospital again.  We arranged childcare, moved appointments, cried at the unfairness of it all.

I told y'all last week that the idea of being readmitted was wearing harder on me than the actual surgery had.

I was ready to be on the other side.  I thought we were.  And when they told me that there wasn't much chance at all to avoid it, that if the medicine was going to work to get the fluid off it would have already, it sucked.  Over the weekend we did a lot of life planning and dreaming, but under it all was this gross feeling that we'd be in the hospital soon.  I subconsciously counted down the hours.

By Sunday I was OK with it.

Hated it, but knew that we would get through it.  That a few days was worth it if it made Gabe more comfortable in the long run.

We drove through a torrential down pour to get there this morning.

It was hospital admission weather.  Dark, cold, wet.

He threw up on his clothes right when we got there.  Just a hint of anxiety.

They lost the blood work order and every appointment took forever.  Gabe screamed through the X-ray, screamed louder when they drew his blood.  The lab tech hushed him, which totally annoys me.  If a kid is getting poked over and over, by golly he can scream if he wants to.

By the time all that was done, I was ready to get admitted so I could maybe take a nap.

But as soon as we walked in, the PA showed me the X-ray.

Right is from Friday, Left is today.

The fuzzy area on the left side is the fluid.

To me, both sides look pretty similar, but I went with the smile on her face and assumed it was good news.  While the fluid isn't totally gone, it went way down.  They are confident that it will continue to leave his body over the next few days and that he will be good to go without being admitted.

So we got to go home.  And it felt like a big, huge victory.  Like we are at the top of the hill, almost over it.

Gabe will stay on two of the diuretics for awhile longer, but got to drop the one that made him gag.  We will get another chest X-ray and set of labs done on Wednesday morning before we see his actual cardiologist.  We can do all of that by our house so we won't have to drive back up to Egelston.  I'm super happy about that.

If all looks good on Wednesday, he will be released back to normal 6 month cardiologist appointments. Which means we should be right on target to leave next week for our trip.

And that is seriously good news, because I have honestly never, ever, ever needed a vacation like I do right about now.

Thank you again for all your kind words and love for Gabe.  I make sure to tell him all the time how loved he is by so many people.  This kid is something else.