Getting closer!

We had Brandt's chest tubes pulled yesterday! They had been causing quite a bit of discomfort and not draining any substantial amount, so it was definitely time for them to go. We gave him a little Versed, which is just a mild sedative, to make the procedure a little less painful. We spent about twenty minutes cracking up at his dopey expressions. It made him the happiest/goofiest kid...I was really wishing we could take some home with us!

The X-ray they did an hour after that looked good. No air pockets had snuck in while the tubes were removed, so there weren't any further issues to deal with. One of his old tube holes had opened up, though, where the stitch was removed the day before, and it was leaking pleural effusions all over the place. (That's the stuff that the tubes were originally catching.) They weren't too worried about it, because they don't expect the fluid to be totally gone yet...it's just at a point where the body can start reabsorbing it on its own. It was making a mess, though, so we ended up putting an ostomy bag over it, which was a slightly hilarious fix, but it worked like a dream! It was done by this morning, so we took it off and replaced it with a bandaid. No more messes!

This morning, his X-ray wasn't quite so good. There was a little too much fluid around his right lung for them to be comfortable with, so even though they'd been talking about discharge today (with a followup appointment on Tuesday), they decided to keep us around a while longer, to try a new, stronger diuretic. He's been on a relatively low dose of furosemide as it is, and was doing well for all intents and purposes, but with the extra drain route gone, his body needs a little extra help to clear the rest of it off. His first dose is in an hour, so we'll see how that works. His face has been a little puffy today, too, so it'll be nice to see if that helps.

In other news, we just got moved to a different room this morning! They needed a place to put two older girls in together, so we got relocated to a single room! And not only a single, it's the biggest room on the floor, with two windows, since it's on the corner! This makes up considerably for the bummer of not getting out today.

Honestly, though, even though it was a little disappointing to not get out today, I'm not overly surprised. My default response to ideas like that is "I'll believe it when I see it." They seem to like to jump the gun a little around here when it comes to mentioning discharge. They did it twice during our first stay and once or twice during the second. As much as I appreciate the fact that they want him to heal up and get going, there's also a time and a place for a healthy dose of reality.

So we'll try again tomorrow, and if that doesn't work, we'll aim for sometime next week. All things considered, he's still been doing fantastically. Not many kids are this close to discharge after only ten days. And tomorrow is his second birthday! If we were to be discharged on his birthday, it would be a pretty great present, I think!

Speaking of his birthday, I think this deserves a "throwback" moment. Sometimes it amazes me to see these old pictures and realize how far he's come.