Discharged!!!

Caden was discharged today! He was less than 72 hours post-op! I can still hardly believe it!!!!!!! This morning, Nurse Christina told us the primary goal was for him have a bowel movement today (he hadn't had one since Monday), and have an echo to make sure everything looked good with his heart and to make sure the baffle wasn't leaking.

The echo was taking place when we arrived this morning. It was really painful for Caden as they pushed the probe around trying to get different views of the heart. He was crying quite a bit and his blood pressure was going up so they ended up taking a break for a few minutes. During the time, the cardiologist doing the echo decided on another means of getting the image he wanted. He injected agitated saline into Caden's IV and they could watch the bubbles on the monitor as they entered the heart. From that he could tell if the bubbles stayed in the correct place or not, or if there was any leaking around the baffle. He said everything was perfect. It was pretty cool to watch that though. And it was a great solution to getting the imaging he wanted without torturing Caden for much longer. 

Having an echo

Once the echo was done, we waited for the doctors to round. They came by a little bit later and said they were ordering an enema to help him move things through and they wanted him up and walking. At that time, they ordered his arterial line and his IV's pulled out and said he didn't need to be monitored anymore. So all leads came off along with the pulse-ox sensor. Once we was free from wires, we put his pajamas on (he got brand new Angry Bird pj's just for the hospital) and had him start walking around the unit. He complained a little at first but then seemed to enjoy it.

The last of the arterial line!

Getting ready to walk

 Walking around the CVICU

After we brought him back to the room, he got back in bed and the nurse gave him the enema. Within two minutes he was ready to move it all on out. As soon as that was done, his attitude completely changed! He had been complaining about his tummy hurting for the last two days and we knew this was the reason why. But as soon as he got it out he was back to the little boy we know and love. He was being funny and silly and laughing with people. He was willing to talk to people and not just give them the stink-eye. It was so awesome to see. His nurse couldn't believe how different he was after that.

Being silly with Christen

Nurse Christina

Once we had those items of business taken care of, the doctors said we were good to go! That meant discharge!!! The cardiology fellow who did our final discharge told us Caden followed the textbook recovery process. That is the first time in Caden's entire life that he has done anything “by the book.” He is always the one to have something rare and unusual. It took a couple hours for the official order to be put into the computer but as soon as it was done, we loaded up our belongings into a wagon, settled Caden into a wheelchair and rolled on out of there. By 12:45 pm we were out the door! :-)

Getting ready to head out

And we are OUT!!!

To make our day even better, our social worker at the hospital was able to get us a room at the Ronald McDonald House. We have spent the last 5 nights at hotels and we are ready to have a little more stability in our lives. She told us the room was available right away and we could head on over. We had some friends come to visit us from Visalia and they were there when we were discharged. Greg and Todd had to go back to the hotel to check out and pack up our belongings. Christen stayed with me and helped me load everything up and take it downstairs. Once we were there, we waited for the shuttle to take us to RMH where Greg and Todd were going to meet us. 

Caden enjoyed the short ride to RMH and we all ate lunch together. As soon as we were done with that, he was ready for a nap. I don't think he had slept at all today and I'm sure his body is exhausted! For the past three days he hasn't been doing much. So I'm sure being up and walking around took a toll on him. Right now he is sleeping while I blog. Poor thing needs the rest!

Right now we will plan to stay at RMH for another week. We have to take Caden into the ER tomorrow to have an echo and quick check-up by one of the cardiologists there. They just want to make sure he is still doing well and adjusting to being outside the hospital. Then we have our official follow-up appointment with the cardiologist in the heart center at the hospital next Thursday. Then on Friday we will head over to Sacramento for the weekend before driving home.

I am so grateful for everyone's prayers and emotional support throughout this experience. We couldn't have done it without you. God is so good and has provided for our every need. I am still in shock that we are out of the hospital. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect our experience to go like this. Nothing with Caden has ever been easy when it comes to medical things so this is absolutely incredible! Thank you all for sticking with us through this journey. It means more than we can express in words.