Light at the end of the tunnel

You know, it's funny how exhausted I feel at the end of the day when all I've done is sit on my round rump all day! Jeez, at this rate I should be able to stay up all night! Our schedule has definitely shifted; Tanner's last dose of lasix comes at 9pm, so he's busy screaming "I have to go pee! I have to go pee" Mommy do it!" until 11pm. Then the peeing continues throughout the night, so Tanner and I have been sleeping until 8:30. So last night I decided to blog first thing this morning with a fresh start but as I was powering up the laptop...we got our moving call! Good thing...grass was begging to grow under our beds! HaHaHa! So out of the Pediatric ICU to back across the hall to the over-flow unit BUT we got the private room! Very quiet today. Very nice flat screen TV with cable. It's considered the "contagious" room...hopefully they "de-germed" it before we got here! I think we're up to 6 moves to date.

The exciting news is Tanner got his chest tubes out! They are only to stay in for 2 weeks due to increase risk of infection. The drainage has decreased dramatically, so they are upping the dose of lasix to help dry out that extra liquid. You can see in this morning's xray above the right side has a taller shadow than on the left. This is the fluid pushing on the lung so our job for the next few days is to get Tanner out of bed and moving! The more he expands his lungs...the faster the shadow will disappear. There is still a chance of having a chest tube put back in, but we (me and the doctors!) are keeping optimistic.

Another reason I didn't blog yesterday is I felt like I am going to be here forever. You know how you look forward to a special trip, but you can't envision yourself there until you're actually at that point in time? That's how I feel about home. Maybe I'm just trying to stay in the moment so I don't get disappointed or overly excited about anything. And being in the ICU, even with "privacy rules" you hear things. At least 2 children have died in there this week. One of our night nurses said, "their little spirits had to find a better body." Very saddening to hear when you're trying to nurse your baby back to health. But that same nurse loved seeing Tanner's baby photos and how happy and healthy he looked. We have just started talking to Tanner about going home. He never has cried to go...he wants Daddy to come stay with him. Mark actually is on his way for the night and all day tomorrow.

BUT there is light at the end of the tunnel! Tubes are coming out and they are starting to transition off the IV meds to oral. Baby steps...but one cardiologist said maybe we would be home by the weekend? I hate to mention that and cause mass disappointment, but I NEED SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO TOO!