Post-Op Day 21

Oh my goodness. It's Friday again. I am really starting to dread the weekends! It just marks another week here, another week lost. And the play room has limited hours on the weekends. In case anyone from LPCH is reading this, it doesn't matter if it's a weekend to kids in the hospital, they still want to play!

Drew was in a pretty good mood today after falling asleep at 5:00 yesterday afternoon and sleeping until morning. We tried to wake him up a few times to eat dinner, but he would just go back to sleep and he even went right back to sleep after his dressing change last night. I wasn't here because Ava was back from Heather & John's house and I took her home to put her to bed. That's a whole story by itself. Let's just say she didn't go to sleep quickly and quietly. She may have been wailing "I miss my daddy all day!"

Anyway, we took Drew to the play room this morning in his wagon and left it right outside the room in the hallway. And when we came out twenty minutes later, it was gone, along with two of his dinosaurs and my camera that we left sitting in it. I was so mad! I hate it when people steal wagons anyway, but I get that they just want a wagon for their kid. But when there is personal property inside, you'd think you could at least say "hey can we borrow this?"

So, we looked in all the rooms on 3 West to no avail. The clerk called security and he came to take a report. I was so bummed that my camera was missing! And no sooner did he leave us with the number to the Palo Alto police department, did I find the wagon back at the play room in its original location WITH all of our things inside! Hooray!

Drew did awesome for his dressing change today. Seriously, no crying, no wincing, no saying ow, it hurts. He even smiled and gave someone a pound. And he didn't immediately put his shirt back on afterwards. Lortab & ativan combo is the way to go! He's still on oxygen, but we may have found the reason why today. The chest x-ray shows a decent sized pleural effusion (fluid pocket around his lung), which would definitely account for low oxygen saturations and coughing. The bad news is the surgeons may want to put a chest tube in to take care of it. The other option is increased IV diuretics, so that's what we're praying for. At three weeks post-op we are supposed to be getting rid of tubes and lines, not adding them.

Thanks for keeping us in your prayers, even with this unfortunate news things don't seem quite so unbearable today.