Robot Day 2 and Home!

When we last posted Henry was napping nicely in his 9th floor ICU room.  A few hours later they told us that we would be moved to his new room soon.  Before we left, though, we noticed he was starting to be a little upset again and we found he still hadn't gone to the bathroom on his own and his bladder was getting large and hard again.  The nice day nurse Betsy gave him a quick catheter (first try!) and provided him some much needed relief before heading down to the 6th floor.

Henry must have thought he was in a parade while being wheeled through the ICU, to the elevators and to his new room.  He was sitting up and very smiley.  The new room was certainly much less fancy than his ICU room.  It was a big space shared by four patients, separated by a few little walls and curtains.  Henry made his grand entrance into his section of the room and found his entourage waiting there!  The day nurse (Annie...she was awesome!) was amused to see everyone there waiting for Henry.  It was nice, though, to have family there so we could take turns being with Henry, eating, etc.

Around 3:30 they came and removed the chest tube that had been used to drain the excess fluids from around the area where they put in the pacemaker.  There was a surprising amount of tubing in there!  We were excited to have the tube removed because it meant that Henry could walk around.  He kept telling us "down, down" but when he was finally down to walk he wasn't too happy about it.  We persisted though and managed to walk to the play room....which we found out had just closed!  Ack!  So back to the room for books, DVDs, toys, etc.

Here is Henry, happy to be in his new room:

Our families left around 8 or so and we settled in the room for the night.  Henry was off of the IV pain meds and was taking some by mouth.  It must not have tasted good because he was not a fan of it!  Poor kid was also constipated so the night nurse had to give him a little help.  Later he drank some milk and we though he was ready for bed.  Apparently he had other plans... For some reason he would not settle into a deep sleep.  He would doze off and then his whole body would jerk and he'd wake up upset.  This went on for hours.  Eddie and I finally started doing shifts so that we could at least get some sleep.  We let the nurse know what was going on and one of the cardiologists on call came in to see Henry.  She was great with him and after looking told us the sleep issue may be his reaction to pain meds, being overtired or being "hyper-vigilant" (meaning he was paranoid someone was going to poke or prod him). 

After what seemed like a long night the sun was coming up, the day nurse returned (we really liked her).  She got us started with his prep to go home!  His bandage came off his chest and we were able to see his incision for the first time.  It is very thin right in the middle of his sternum and about 2-2.5 inches long.  They use stitches much like plastic surgeons use so the scar should be very thin.  Once he was de-bandaged he had an EKG, echocardiogram and chest x-ray that the surgical team reviewed to make sure things were going okay.  We were pleased to find out that things were looking really good (a few different doctors remarked about how well things had gone) and that he'd be released around lunchtime! 

But before we left we had one more projectile incident (fun!) but he finally dozed off after it.  So while we waited to be be released he slept on Eddie's lap and then mine.  One of the last things they did for Henry was disconnect all of the IV tubes and sensor cables.  Henry was really glad to be "freed" of all of the IV tubes because that meant they could take off the little boards that were holding one wrist and the other elbow straight.

We packed up our belongings, changed Henry into his "real" clothes and headed out to meet Eddie's dad who drove us home. 

Here is Henry in his cool dude sunglasses, happy to be going home:

We got back around 1:30 and we were so happy to be home!  Henry seemed to be happy to be home too.  He drank a little juice and then needed a nap.  He took a nice nap in his crib while Eddie showered and I snoozed. 

My mom made a delicious meatloaf dinner for us and we enjoyed it.  Even Henry felt up to sitting at the table like a big boy and had a few bites of food. He really perked up after dinner and enjoyed playing "catch" with Ding Dong (my mom) and then went nuts when Aunt Kitty brought him balloons!

Here is Henry have some fun at home:

We gave him his first dose of antibiotics and quickly saw them again as he did his Exorcist impression. (Poor kid!)  We got him cleaned up and did bedtime as usual.  He was fussy on and off while sleeping and Eddie and I were thankful that my mom had a "sleepover" with Henry and kept him calm so we could sleep.  We did have some "fun" in the middle of the night when Henry had some milk and promptly did another Exorcist...all over my mom!  Thankfully we all have a good sense of humor about everything and he was cleaned up and back in bed in no time.

This morning he was cuddly when he got up and had some quality time with Eddie on the couch.  He perked up again and played with some puzzles, his dry-erase board, etc.  MomMom and PopPop came for a visit and he liked having them here.  They played with his piggy bank and threw the ball around.  MomMom even got him to eat a little lunch!  It was a small victory until we tried his antibiotics again....same result as last night after just one little taste!  (The texture is kind of gritty.)  I put the rest of the dose in a spoon with some apple sauce and we had good results.   We gave him some milk and he was down for a nap. 

It's nice to have him back at home and getting back to his normal everyday activities.  Tomorrow we'll be able to give him a shower, which should make him feel much better!  We are just hoping his appetite and "drive to drink" (a phrase one of the doctors used...made me laugh a little) return some more and that he can keep his medicine down.

Thank you again for all of your support and kind words!  It has made a huge difference for us!