Reunited

My parents brought the kids over to Edmonton for a few days so that I could be reunited with this beauty face.

We had a great few days, but quite a few tears were shed whenever I thought of them going home. I tried to live in the moment and just appreciate the time I had with them, but in the back of my mind I was always knew that it would be tough when they left. Plus there was the added guilt of not spending enough time with either Rosalie, Brayden, and my parents, and also not spending enough time at the hospital with Dominic. I wanted to split myself in two and be both places at once. Unfortunately we didn't really do much fun stuff while the kids were here because I didn't really want to be too far from Dominic at any time, plus there was Rosalie's nap to consider, but we still had a good time, and Rosalie got to meet Dominic for the first time. She actually knows he's a real person now! But I was right, I cried an entire river when they drove away. It was super SUPER tough to see my little monkey leave.

Dominic's recovery is going well, but there have been a few set backs that has slowed our progress into getting home. First his oxygen saturation levels were lower than expected and the doctors were really unsure of why, so it was a lot of guesswork. Eventually they figured out that the secretions in his mouth and lungs were not the mouth breathing he does because of his cleft lip and palate, but actually because of the bacterial pneumonia that they discovered in his lungs. So he was put on antibiotics and after 48 hours his saturations were far better. So once his saturations went up the plan became to wean him off of his ventilator so that he could get his breathing tube removed, and then technically he would be able to go back to Saskatoon. Then he had another set back when an Echocardiogram they did didn't come back totally clean. Part of the conduit they put in his heart wasn't moving as much as they thought it should be. The doctor said it looked "thick". They figured this could be because of one of three reasons 1) A blood clot, this would just move out on it's own eventually 2) a bacterial infection, this could explain where his pneumonia came from and the antibiotics he's already on for the pneumonia will treat the conduit. Or 3) there is a problem with the conduit that they put in and he will need to go back into surgery in order to fix it... I am hoping for option one or two, I think two is the most likely because of the bacterial infection he's already got, but I REALLY hope it's not option three. I will be devastated. No word of a lie. That would mean we would be starting all over with his recovery and looking at at least another two weeks here. I don't think I'll survive. But we'll find out tomorrow one way or another, because he has now been scheduled for a CT scan.

More interesting development this evening. While we were eating supper, I had a call from Dominic's nurse because he had decided to spit up his breathing tube. I am not totally sure how this is actually possible, but he did it. He caused quite the frenzy on the unit from the sounds of it. There was a bunch of panic because they thought he wasn't ready to breathe without it, but after they bagged him to help him breathe, they realized he was mostly doing it on his own anyway. So after some discussion, it was decided not to re-intubate him, and just put him on a ventilation mask to help him out in case he needed it. So he is breathing entirely on his own, although they are still supplementing his oxygen. My interpretation of this scenario is that Dominic decided that after he met his sister, he realized he would WAY rather be at home playing with her instead of in a hospital bed in Edmonton. So he was all, like, "Nuts to this!" and just got rid of it to prove he could do without...

So it is still completely up in the air when we will get to come home. I was told on Friday, before the Echo and Dominic's self-extubation, that it would not be unreasonable for him to be here for another two weeks in order to give him time to get off of the ventilator... but now that he is no longer on the breathing tube, that should make things go quicker... but then there is this business with his conduit that could mean more surgery, thus a longer stay... So who knows.

We're crossing our fingers that he doesn't need another surgery, but we should know a better idea of the plan in the next couple of days. Keep sending those positive thoughts our way!