At Last

Friday, February 22, 2013

We are home. Period. End of update. Just kidding. What a wonderfully eventful day we had. JR was off today again to celebrate the homecoming. We started our day at 7 am as usual, as Dr. Peck made her way in from the land of Ortho to round on us before Dr. Knapp came in. She was not excited about the swelling either, and agreed that a spacer would probably be the best thing right now. She confirmed what Dr. Crawford was thinking...that Jack won't last the full 4 weeks in his current cast. Dr. Knapp came a little later, and decided that he did want the spacer. So we waited awhile for that, eventually Dr. Knapp came back with Willie, the ortho tech, and they cut through both legs of Jack's cast, and a little into the groin to remove the dressing from his hip surgery. Jack didn't cry at all, I think it was tickling him actually, he cried only when Dr. Knapp started to get the dressing out. This kid is hilarious. They put two plastic pieces in the cut they made along the legs, and opened up the cast a little, then placed fiberglass over it to protect it. Even now, almost 12 hours later, the swelling hasn't let up a lot. Dr. Knapp said it should in a few days, if not, doesn't matter cause we have a follow-up with him on Wednesday.

The nurses on the floor got us a going away gift, a little toy for Jack. It was so thoughtful. We are so lucky to have had such an amazing group of people taking care of us at Arnold Palmer Hospital. We will miss them. I promised to bring Jack by to visit when we see Dr. Knapp throughout this year.

Dr. Jordan from ID came by, the labs finally were normal! Leave it to our kid to wait until the last possible minute. All his inflammation numbers are down. No temp for over 24 hours. We have a follow-up with Dr. Jordan on the 11th, hopefully immediately following his appointment with Knapp, for the REMOVAL, and not RECAST of the cast. Send those prayers out folks. He is going to do a clinical exam to make sure he is still strong and healthy. Apparently it is possible to relapse.  After that appointment,  I hope there are no more follow-ups or no cast to deal with until we have to address his hip later on. PT ladies, this is when I will need your help as to what to do with him after the cast comes off.

The last thing we had to wait for was surgery to remove his Broviac central line. We waited a while, they received an order to make him NPO (nothing by mouth) and Jack got very hungry while waiting. When surgery came  in, it was an older doctor with his Grey's Anatomy team. He was very straight forward, no joking with this guy. He asked one of his students a simple math question (you know the doctor) and it took her FOREVER to answer, and she never really answered, he did for her. Needless to say, I am glad the other doctor was holding the needle. Broviac came out beautifully. No complications.

We busted out at about 3:30pm (ironically this is when Jack made his debut to the world) and we headed home. He wasn't excited about the car ride, but I think it is because his car seat is mildly uncomfortable with the cast. So we shall see if that last the two weeks too. Since he has been home, he has done just fine. We even got to Skype with my sister for an hour, Jack of course fell asleep :)

We wanted to thank all of the people who came out to visit us, Grandma Stevie, Sammy, April/Rafael/Carter, Ty, Kirsten, Addy, Courtney, Randi, Pat, Tom, Uncle Will and Eric, and anyone my absent mindedness forgot. To those who sent us love, Pat, Pam, Jeff/Kerry, Carol/Daniel/M/Carter, Linsey/Logan, Teresa/Loren/Maddy/Myles, and again anyone I can't remember off hand. We are so blessed to have such amazing people in our lives. From our families, to the families we have created along the way in our lives. Heck, I even got support from women (other new and veteran Moms) from multiple pregnancy forums (WTE ladies XOXOXO), my running group (PRC you are awesome! XOXOXO), work friends (XOXOXO) all of the love and prayers helped us to be stronger, and aided in Jack's recovery. He is so strong, I am so grateful.

To our families, thank you! Lizzie, mom, Mumzie, Aunt Della, Andie, Grandma Stevie/Tom, Aunt Pam, Rocky/Mardi, Jen, all the Wilkinson's...what would we do without you. Love.

And a special shout-out to Niko, and JR's colleagues at work. Thank you for being so flexible in your schedules, and with his to allow what started out as a normal follow-up appointment, turned month long stay in the hosptial. You made this alot easier on us! Uncle Paul, and Eric, thank you for being there for JR and providing him with the support and friendship that he needed :)

I will not be updating every day now. I will do a few days from now, and any time we have a follow-up. I am going to turn the blog into Keeping up with Jack.

All my love

Kat