Tanner's First Week at Home

It's been quite a week. Thanksgiving was wonderful with the entire family! We celebrated with having Tanner home! Yipee! He was so excited about the new house and his new room...spreading out his cars and driving them all over. The only thing he DID struggle with was coming DOWN the stairs...obviously he had been in bed for 65 days and lost his muscle mass! But amazingly enough...after just a week at home, he's running around and climbing down the stairs PERFECTLY! But on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, we ended up in the ER at Kaiser in Antioch. The day before, Mark and I noticed a rash on Tanner's back and tummy. It wasn't raised, but Tanner started scratching Sunday morning so off we went. They were concerned about an allergic reaction to the antibiotics OR plavix...so they stopped the plavix because Tanner had been on the antibiotics for 3 weeks in the hospital. We started benedryl to help the itching. Then Monday morning we already had a scheduled appointment with our Cardiology Dr. at UCSF so Tanner and I headed back to the city! When we arrived, it was like a reunion! Everyone stopped into to see us...2 cardiologists, 2 nurse practitioners and Petros the surgeon...it was fun to show off how well Tanner looked. Tanner's number's were perfect (Oxygen, blood pressure) but they still didn't know about the rash. So they wanted to keep Tanner off the plavix (super blood thinner) and because his numbers were so high, he really doesn't need it right now...but to come back Wednesday to be re-checked for the rash. So back to UCSF we went Wednesday morning...stayed for 15 minutes...and then went BACK AGAIN FRIDAY! This time, the traffic was horrible at the Bay Bridge, took us over 2 hours to get there...and our appointment was ONLY 5 MINUTES! Oh well, as long as we're home sleeping in our own beds. Tanner's rash virtually disappeared by Thursday and he was eating better and had more energy. The consensus was maybe just a virus...since there was no fever...but he's feeling so GOOD! Our next trip back to UCSF is this Wednesday to have the PICC line replaced and 2 stitches removed from the wound site (which looks super healed) - hopefully just a day trip. Mark is still home from work seeing as I've been back and forth to the city...and with the other kids still in school...it's impossible for just one to do it all. It's also been good healing time for our family!