Saturday, November 15, 2008

Woah, Tiger


The moment Wren arrived home he started rushing around. He is still wobbly on his feet and tender if he makes upward motions with his arms. He is very afraid when I take off his clothes (expecting pokes and tape removal?) and cries "all done".

Still, without all the bloody punctures, bruises, rashes from tape, incisions and the black stitch in his belly - you wouldn't know he was on a monitor in bed this morning. He walked around the garden, ran up and down the corridor, arranged all his toys, walked to the playground next door and ate two meals at table. It was very hard to get him to nap and he was so joyful at the idea of icecream for desert that he opened the carton himself and walked around licking it. Nobody stopped him.

Here he is in the garden receiving some special attention:



After I put him to bed we were talking about ways to keep him quiet tomorrow. We think we may have to let him watch some DVDs that he liked in hospital - like Big Bird in Japan and some Bob the Builder episodes. We can only read so many books and it is so wonderfully warm that you need a real alternative to running around the yard. However, according to the discharge papers, the patient should relax and rest for the first two weeks home. Hrmm.

We have been reading the hospitalization summary that we were given for our cardiologist. It just makes me mad. Its not anything particularly worrying - I mean, there are a few nuggets that make me a bit sad, like the fact he had a big thymus (indicating it was still busy building immunity and that it has been stored as a specimen after surgery. Can they DO that? Keep a bit of him in a bottle?). Also, there are so many numbers about gradient and peak gradient, and they vary so much, that I don't know what to think.

The thing that makes me mad is that the whole concern and explanation of the ST-elevations is laid out there in black and white but nobody would share that information with us. The concern was that Wren had a high level of Triponon post-op AND ST-segment elevations. The elevations persisted off and on on subsequent echos but the Triponon went to zero. The latest EKG was much better. So, there was some event in recovery and they were following it in recovery. It took ages for us to get that information and only through overhearing bedside conversations. This is just one example. I think I will do it differently next time.

[And I will definitely bring my own high quality bubble mixture. Cheap bubble mixture is just frustrating.]

Here are Frost and Joshua riding home from the Papua New Guinea grove and the Rodin Sculpture Park yesterday afternoon.

3 comments:

Heather Jandusay said...

You look great Wren, and we can't wait to see you!!

Unknown said...

Wren looks so content in his carseat! It's wonderful that he can enjoy the garden and the sunshine!

Hope you are hanging in there. I understand your frustration.

Melissa Liu said...

Nice job summarizing everything on the blog. I'm glad to hear you are back home and Wren is recovering well. =)