Home!!

We are home! It was pretty touch and go there for awhile today, we didn't think we were on the path to discharge yesterday morning, certainly. But here we are, home!

Friday was good, with a few rough spots. But I'll take that over Thursay- which was a mostly rough with a few good spots! :)

Friday
She had a problem with her IV when trying to get her 4 a.m. IV torodal dose....she was screaming that it hurt and we couldn't give it to her :( We were able to give the oral Oxycodone and she went back to sleep. But we didn't get one of her doses of another med in the morning and so we didn't quite keep up on the pain control, which meant....plenty of tears and not much movement. She also would only take a few bites of any food.

I COULD NOT sleep in the chair that I thought I could last night, mom was on the oh-so-comfy couch (yeah, right) so I ended up on climbing into bed with Kate. That was perfect. We were woken by Surgical Rounds at 7 a.m. I had a goal of showering :) Mom and I ordered a late breakfast and Dr. Le also came by. I was fresh out of the shower with my hair up in a towel:) but he said we could take the drain out after lunch and it might still be possible to get home.

She was in quite a bit of pain, so we ended up giving a dose of morphine through the IV - painful and she was screaming but we powered through. Dave made it to the hospital at 10 a.m. and we had some visitors stop by as well! Miss Chris, Rylee and Lexee stopped by and Kate was up and in the chair by then, on top of pain control and talking more - perfect! We made her walk a bit and she started to get a little worn out. So, we put her back in bed, I finished getting ready. Mom stayed with Kate while Dave and I went out to find a good cup of coffee and we were back at noon - the Badgers were going to stop by!

We gave her the iPad and tried to comb through that hair!
It will do until we can get home and really clean her up

We had a nice young woman and young man with the Badger Swimming & Diving Team stop by to see Kate and give her a shirt:) Kate really lit up and was super happy to get her picture taken with them. We got her up again soon after and she sat on the couch and watched some Big Ten swimming and diving videos on You Tube:)

This not a great picture, but she really lit up for them, very cool moment

Watching Big Ten diving

We kept up with meds and tried to let her rest too. About 1:30 p.m. one of the surgical residents (I don't know who he was but he had a GREAT bedside manner) came by to pull out her drain. She was very nervous about it and started screaming when he just did the tape. They did it super slowly and it took forever. They had one stitch keeping it in place and he cut that and then pulled the drain out. Not pleasant for her. But yay for having the drain out!!

Sitting on the couch!
These milestones meant so much to me -
she screamed, screamed, screamed when we tried to move her on Thursday

After that, we went for a wagon ride to the playroom. She was excited and we wheeled her in and she went right to the table and wanted to play play-dough. I got teary watching her act so normal for a bit. She was talkative and moving (slowly) and smiling and happy. She colored, played in the kitchen and then she seemed a little worn out. So, we got back in the wagon and headed back.

Another moment that brought happy tears

She couldn't pass up a cool kitchen/grocery store!

She rested and then we met with an NP who talked about discharge. We had the nurse come in and take out the IVs. Hmm...umm...not the best time. She had some huge ones in and that was hard. And a bit bloody. But yeah!! getting things disconnected!

We packed up the massive amount of stuff we had accumulated, got some meds, said goodbye to the awesome staff and headed out!

When we got back from our journey to the playroom, she had another delivery!

The 5th floor Pediatric Surgical Unit was "Woods" themed
I loved all the artwork!

Packing up and leaving....Daddy walking Kate's cow down to the truck!

Ready to leave that room!

The car ride was not awesome. Rainy and too bumpy. We put Kate in Collin's car seat and propped her the best we could. She did have meds on board, and she dozed some. We arrived home to a table full of more gifts (we are so overwhelmed!) and Ron, Bobbi and the boys! They had made chili and Kate cuddled up on the couch with Dave. The boys did really well with not jumping on her:) We put the boys to bed and let Kate sit up for a little while. Got her set up in her OWN ROOM and kissed her goodnight. She is still wincing a lot and having some pain. Her drain was kind of leaking and we had to put a bigger bandage on that while she was going to the bathroom. She is complaining of pain on that side. We put a towel under her for bed tonight.

She was in good spirits right when we left, but soon we didn't like the bumpy road

I meant to post this yesterday, but I'm rather exhausted and feel like I can't remember my own name right now:)

We are home. We are happy. I have a little fear that she might have too much pain or need something we can give/do for her, but I'm praying that everything will just keep getting better each day and she'll bounce back soon. Seeing her painless and smiling, talking right now....it feels really special and amazing and I get teary and can't wait for the days when that is our normal again! The doctors have said she should try and eat as normal as she can and resume activity but take it easy and slightly restricted for about a week. We are going to play school by ear, maybe return for a little bit at the end of the week.

We are also completely humbled and emotional about the love and support she/we have received. Truly, it takes our breath away. I have a lot of happy, grateful tears and imagine I will be that way for a few more days:)

I probably will not post as often now, but hope to just keep posting about what our family is up to, whenever I can find a moment to sit down - hmmmm.....we'll see!