Home Stretch

Davis had an Echo and x-rays today to make sure he is indeed ready to be discharged tomorrow.  The Echo looked great and the docs were very happy with how his heart is functioning.  He still has a very small amount of regurgitation into the right atrium, but nothing compared to pre-surgery.  The doctor said that some people with completely normal hearts have his current amount of regurgitation and we shouldn't worry about it. They said that his heart is in effect fixed, but will need annual checkups and could potentially need a new valve 20 years or so down the road if his wears out...but only time can tell if that will happen.  Every person is different and they just can't guarantee anything about his future.  But we've done everything we can for his heart and all is looking very good right now. His x-rays looked great as well but showed that he still had a lot of gas in his system that most likely came from the CPAP he wore for a while.  That forces air into his system and it's typical to see lots of gas after using the CPAP.  So he was pretty fussy and uncomfortable most of the day until he worked that out of his system. The nursing staff here is amazingly nice and helped us massage his belly and take him for wagon rides to cheer him up. By dinner time he was feeling much better and just wanted to cuddle as he was exhausted from his fussy short naps today. I have to say, he was as adorable as I've ever seen him as I rocked him to sleep tonight.  Imagine a totally content little guy with huge puppy dog eyes just sitting in my lap looking up and getting sleepy.  It was my pleasure to cuddle him to sleep.  Once we moved him to his crib he woke up a bit, but Kelly was right there to give him some booty pats to get him back to sleep.  It was great team work, and made us feel much better about leaving him for his last night in the CICU.  :)  So tomorrow we'll take our final shuttle to the hospital and get everything in order for discharge.  The only thing on the schedule for him tomorrow is one lab (blood draw) and one RSV vaccine and then we should be out the door.  It's going to feel SO good to take him back to our hotel and know that we're on our way home.  Our flight leaves on Friday, so we'll have Wed afternoon and Thursday to get packed, and let Davis get a bit more comfortable at this lower elevation.