Monday, November 21, 2005 ; 11:15am
We had a great night, his fever is gone, and he looks better and better. The Dr’s came by around 9:30 and said they see no reason to keep him since he is doing so well. They plan to discharge him today and we will come back in Wednesday for a check-up before returning home. Hopefully we can get a flight Wed. night or Thursdasy morning. When I left to come back to the room we were still waiting to do an echocardiogram to be sure everything still looks good. Dr. Latson said we will need to do another heart cath in about 2 months to check the flow because he’s not sure it’s tight enough. If it’s not, they would have to go back in and tighten it some more. Please pray that it will be tight enough and working as it’s supposed to. We’ve had a great experience this time (as well as possible for opening up your childs chest) but I have no desire to do it again anytime soon. This too is all in God’s hands.
Sunday 7 pm
When I returned this afternoon, Samuel was sleeping. The nurse said he could get up and walk, so Cole walked with him and then pushed him around in a little tikes car for awhile. He had eaten a great lunch and then napped. After his nap I gave his a sponge bath and put some of the clothes we brought on him. We even got to see some smiles today. We went for a little walk and then I pushed him in the car and we toured the hospital for about 30 min. When we returned, the nurse came by and said that we could possibly be discharged sometime tomorrow, depending on how his chest x-ray looks in the morning. We were shocked. We would stay in our hotel room for a couple of days and then they want to see him for a check up before we return home. We are so excited! I came to the room to take a little break before returning for the night. I had planned on posting some new pictures, but left the camera. It will have to wait until my next trip back to the room, which will be sometime in the morning. Samuel is doing so well.. Once again, he is proving what a fighter he his. He is going to have a mighty testimony to share of how our mighty God worked MANY miracles in his precious life.
Sunday 12 noon
Once again I have seen God answer prayer, in an unexpected way. I have been praying for Samuel to cooperate with the Dr’s. and behave in the manner that would help him heal the fastest; I didn’t expect this to include his self removal of his intubation tube at least 8 hours before they were even going to evaluate whether he was ready or not. While it scared me to death and resulted in little sleep for me, we were moved off of the PICU floor yesterday afternoon. This means they feel his greatest risks are past us! Praise God!!! We are now in the “quad”. It is an area behind the nursing station that has eight beds and they can keep a close eye on him. I spent the night there with Samuel last night. It was comfortable, but we got little consecutive sleep due to checking his vitals, getting medicine, his and others monitors beeping, and general hospital noise. He still has a fever, which could be a sign of infection. This scares me, but they say it is still within a “normal” time frame for him to have fever, so they haven’t begun to worry yet. They did draw more blood this morning, so hopefully they can tell from it if there is some infection to persue. His is on an antibiotic, so it should help. Before I came to the room so shower, they removed his oxygen, which he constantly tried to remove, so he is happier. The said they were going to take him off the morphine today and then be able to unhook the IV from the machine and then he will be able to move around more freely and behave more like himself since he won’t be medicated. He doesn’t seem to be in any pain, but he is not happy about his fluid intake being so restricted. He is only allowed 1 oz. of liquid every hour. He cries a good bit when I tell him he can’t have any more, but this too is good, because it clears his lungs out. He is allowed to eat, and he ate well last night (applesauce, mashed potatoes, a little chicken, cheerios, some yogurt, pudding, bread), but he wouldn’t eat his breakfast. Hopefully Cole is having better luck with lunch. I came back to the room to shower about 9:30 and then took a little nap, and now fixing to head back over. Thank you all for the prayers, encouraging words and support. You have no idea how much it means. Love you all!!!!