A whirlwind of a day!

I've been telling the nurses for the past couple of days that even though they were saying "Discharge on Thursday!", I wouldn't believe it until I was physically walking out the door. Three times prior to this, we were told our discharge day, only to have it postponed by another detail that, to be fair, really did need to get fixed.

It doesn't take long for one's belongings to stack up...

So today, I spent a very boring morning cuddling Brandt, feeding him, reading a book...the same things I always do. But come time for rounds, the doctors got through all of their basic information run-throughs, and then suddenly, "So it looks like you'll be leaving us today!" There was a lot of incredulous excitement from my corner.

So I scurried around and packed up my things, then ran off to visit Heather one last time before I left. Last night, her little girl, Olivia, de-satted and couldn't bounce back on her own, so they took her down for an emergency catheter after calling for the rapid response team. Two stents later, she was brought back to the ICU, satting in the 80's and looking much better. We all have our fingers crossed that that will be the end of the scary stuff (there's nothing more terrifying than watching a team of doctors with concerned expressions swarming around one's baby, saying things like "This doesn't look good.") and may be part of their ticket home! Olivia is a tiny little champ.

After asking their nurse to break some rules for us (no children under eight allowed in the ICU), I grabbed Brandt and hauled him back there to snap a quick picture of our little quartet. It put a bit of a damper on things to have to leave a friend in the same situation that I was getting out of! As I left, I checked around for George, a nurse that we had had quite a few times that was a kindred spirit of Brandt's...he swore he had red hair when he wasn't bald, and grew out his beard while we were there to prove it. (He was, in fact, a ginger.) Sadly, he wasn't working today, so we couldn't say goodbye, but as we were heading back out the door, we (almost literally) ran into Dr. Chen!

Meds, anyone? Currently on seven different
types, plus some "as needed", given five times
a day. I had a hard enough time remembering
aspirin once a day!

Dr. Chen is the surgeon that did both of Brandt's surgeries, and he's followed up with us off and on over the past few weeks. As an aside: a couple weeks ago, he took a business trip to Montana to meet up with some of the cardiologists that send him patients. He came to me one day, prior to departure, asking what there was to do in Great Falls. I just scoffed. There's nothing to DO in Great Falls, unless you're interested in overpriced popcorn at the local theater. But apparently he got a second opinion somewhere, and when he came back, he told me all about his visit to the Sip'n'Dip...a local bar that proudly boasts of live mermaids in a giant tank. "It was so cool! That was seriously the highlight of my trip." I was mortified, and wanted to insist that he not remember Montana because of its mythical creatures, and more for its rustic beauties, friendly people, and clean air...but alas, the damage has been done.

Anyway, he loved seeing Brandt and actually getting to hold him, rather than cut into him...again. There's just something about a chubby baby, I tell you!

By two o'clock, I was loading our things into the car, having maneuvered the hospital with a wagon of paraphernalia that didn't steer and a ten pound carseat loaded up with seventeen pounds of baby.

I was looking forward to discharge with a certain amount of trepidation. It's been six long weeks since my baby has been mine, and suddenly, the idea seemed daunting, especially considering that his schedule is nothing now like it was at home and he has meds five times a day! It didn't take long to start getting the hang of things again, though, and I'm becoming a pro at his Lovenox (blood thinner) injections. He hardly even fussed this evening! (Gives self a high-five.) Steph and Corey came by this evening to help out a bit, which took a huge amount of pressure off as I scurried to get his formula made before he ran out.

So now we just get to hang around in town for a week. We have our follow-up appointment on Wednesday, and Tanner will be flying out that afternoon to drive us home. If the appointment goes well, we'll be heading to Oregon that night to see Tanner's family, then home on Friday, and real life can start happening again! Tomorrow, though, I move to Shawna's for the remainder of our stay. This way, I'm not totally alone twenty-four hours a day, and someone else can have my room at RMH. Considering that there are still 20 families on the waiting list, I'm sure there's someone out there who's needs are greater than mine at this point.