The tube is out

Bottles are in!

Our first "cardiac surgery clinic" visit went well. I thought it was going to be a short weight check and discussion on how we were doing but it took two hours and involved having a chest X-ray, EKG, all vitals, sats etc. Our nurse (one of those NPs who do a lot of the follow-up) said "I have no concerns".

Here is the summary:
1) Chest x-ray is completely dry - not even the suggestion of fluid around the lungs as there was at discharge.
2) EKG - normal sinus rhythm
3) Weight - 4.3kg = 60g gained per day.
4) BPs as they were before.
5) SATs in extremities 100%
6) He has reflux and will probably go on Reglan / prilosec from next week.
7) I was given a choice of doing 4 feeds by ng tube or 4 feeds by bottle. While the bottle won't be easy it is so tempting to try. So, she removed the ng tube and we are now doing all feeds by mouth.
8) Wound is healing well but still needs dry-packing.

Even though Mum left this morning I am feeling far better about everything to be ng-tube free (at least for a while). Thinking back over the past few days I think I am feeling so emotional as I relax a little - kind of recovering from the surgery and anxiety that has gone before. I think there were only two days on which I felt so emotional (the day he was born and while he was in surgery). The rest of the time I have been trying to C-O-P-E rather than collapse in a heap. There wasn't time to cry about things so now I get to cry about traffic and spilt milk (literally).

Anyway, this is a happy post. I got to eat some hot lunch at the Children's Cafetaria which was quite good and nothing can go wrong when you have blue-cheese dressing.

I have some phonecalls to make later (you know who you are!) but for now, I am going to nap while Wren sleeps too.