We Are Home (aka Little Blue House)

Home is NOT the Alberta Children's Hospital.  I have to remind myself of that regularly when we get so comfortable that we could pretty much forget that life exists outside of that world.  Ok... I guess we can't really forget, but it's amazing how you can carry life on in one little room and the surrounding "metropolis" of Hospitalland.  

The doctors gave Peyton his papers today and sent him out the door, but they didn't promise he wouldn't have to return this time.  I kind of wish they wouldn't have given us odds the first time that an obstruction after a rupture/surgery might occur about 4 - 5% of the time in kids like him - you know our history with odds.  We have now had two occurrences since the original surgery.  Oh boy.  I don't think we knew the extent of the infection from the original rupture and abscess until all the complications began to arise.  Now they are saying we are high risk for bowel obstructions due to adhesions from scar tissue for the next two years.  I am now working on the mindset that we may have to go back for this yet again, in the hopes that I will be pleasantly disappointed (do those words go together?) if we don't.  At this point I think I would rather expect it and be glad it didn't happen than not to expect it and be blindsided by it.  Strangely, I think we needed this last little experience to prove that there can be a short, uncomplicated hospital stay and that these occurrences, if they have to happen, can resolve without surgery and serious intervention.  It provided a sense of relief that you could probably feel when you walked in the room today.  We had been holding our breath until today.

Peyton started his day by getting his NG tube out which he was less than thrilled about.  We gave him the option of having the nurse do it or of letting him do it by himself and he went to work, crying the whole time.  He was so proud of himself afterwards and so excited to be tube-free that I don't think there was a person on the floor that didn't hear his story.  The next hurdle was to take the IV out of his arm, and we left that until the last possible minute.  I think removing the tape was the worst part of the procedure, and you would have thought we were doing minor surgery.  He was so thrilled physically and emotionally to be free of the last fetter - the look on his face and his statement a few minutes later said it best.  He asked if he got to go home now that the "straw" was out of his arm and if it was ok.  I said yes, and he then said, "And I don't even have to go to Heaven?!"  He got so excited he nearly leaped off the bed and it was all I could do to contain him while I rounded up the odds and ends that had collected in the short time we called his room "home".  We knew there was an emotional impact this time around that was much more evident, but I don't know that either one of us knew the extent of what's been going on in Peyton's little mind lately.  

I may not be inclined to put the suitcase away this time so quickly - the thought has crossed my mind that I should leave it packed and then perhaps we won't have to go back!  If Peyton wasn't going through clothes so quickly I might leave a stack in there, but luck would have it that if I left them in there and we did end up having to go back that whatever I left in there would fit like his mom didn't want to accept that he was growing, or she thought there was a flood coming!  Unpacking one way or the other will not be happening tomorrow!  We are going to play all day.

Thanks again for your prayers - perhaps they made the difference between a short stay and a long stay!  We appreciate every one.  Please continue to pray for Abby - she is experiencing complications currently and has had a rough last couple days.  Please pray she will bounce back quickly and that her parents will have peace in the middle of the storm.