Going Home

We are going home! We don't know what time, but it will be today. We are ecstatic and very antsy to get out of here. Although it will be an adjustment going back to "normal" life, we cannot wait. I can't believe we're getting out of here so early.

Clare's progress on the cardiac floor has been fabulous. She has not had any more "episodes" with her heart rate. The doctor removed her pacer wires from her chest yesterday as well as all her stitches. She had to be monitored for one hour after they did this, and did fine. She has been feeding as normal and her weight is going up again. Clare has been playing a little and I've seen some smiles. We are blessed to have our baby back!

Clare's echo yesterday went well. She tolerated the sedation process beautifully. So good in fact, that her cardiologist here cleared her for sedated echos in the future - we'll see if her home cardiologist agrees! The good thing about being able to do sedated echos is that they get a more accurate picture of Clare's heart when she is sedated (crying and moving can have an affect on her numbers), so hopefully we won't have the scares we've had with her past echos. Her echo showed that her ascending aorta and aortic arch look like a typical aorta. Her descending aorta is still a little small, but it's not at a degree where it poses a danger to Clare right now. Her pressures are high in the pulmonary side of her heart, but that is expected. She is definitely on her way to having another cath, but hopefully it will not be until after Christmas. The cardiologist was actually excited about the results of Clare's echo, which made us excited!

So we are on our way out of here! Our big thing today is to learn about Clare's new meds and dosing schedule. She is still on methodone and is being weaned off it very slowly so she does not go through withdrawal. Clare will have a total of 12 doses of medication a day with all her various meds, so I am ready to draft her dosing schedule with help from the nurse!