The Puddles

Home. The Lake family home located in Conroe, Texas. Population 9 (2 Lakes, 3 Puddles, 2 guard dogs, and 2 minions of Satan (the cats))

It has been so wonderful just being home. Don’t look behind the couch where all of the suitcases and duffle bags are hidden at the moment. We will unpack those tomorrow. Today is a day of rest and reconnecting with each other. Chris said we were starting to be like the Waltons because we had shared so many meals around the kitchen table in the last day. More than we had in a long time.

It has been peaceful. A little TV. Some napping on couches. No sibling warfare. Eating the fine food brought over by our church family. Laughing. And most importantly rejoicing.

Ben heard his new heartbeat for the first time today. I don’t know why I had never thought of letting him hear it before today. There is no more “swish swish” sound, only “thump thump.” His heart has sounded like a washing machine for so long. It is truly like icing on the cake to hear his new heartbeat. He even called his sisters over to listen (something that is highly unusual for him). We all celebrated his new heartbeat. I have never seen Ben smile so big. That smile was all the reward I needed after the last week.

We still have a few hurdles to jump. On his first night home, he started running a fever of 101.7. We called the hospital (as instructed). The cardiologist on call told us to give him medicine and then call back in the morning if the fever was still there. Ben wasn’t having any symptoms besides a fever. So these instructions sounded reasonable. He woke up with no fever and continued to be fine throughout the day. Until tonight, when his temperature went to 102.2. He doesn’t have any other symptoms so we gave him Tylenol and are checking his temp throughout the night. But we are calling his cardiologist in the morning and we already have a scheduled follow up appointment with his pediatrician tomorrow. So hopefully we can get to the bottom of these weird evening temperature spikes. And we pray it is nothing serious or something that will send Ben back to the hospital. We really are tired of the place. We don’t mind letting someone else use our room for the next ten years.

Even with all of the issues, we are still grateful and enjoying our time as a family. As mom, I will enjoy the peace while I can. Because I know that the first sibling fight is coming and then I will know that we have returned to normal again.

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We will be going home tomorrow. After Ben threw up all of his morning medicines, they decided to take him off of one diuretic which means that they wanted to watch him one more day. So we have tried to make the best of it. 

 
We went and played arcade games on the 16th floor. I taught him how to play space invaders.  Poor guy thought that it was a little antiquated. I told him that it was pretty advanced technology for me when it came out! So he had some fun before we came back to his room and got ready for bed. 

So fingers crossed, we will go home tomorrow morning! 

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At the moment we are stuck here for another day. The doctor thinks that with Ben throwing up all of his medicines this morning that it would be wise to stay one more day.  So after the initial disappointment, we are trying to make the most of it.  

There is still a slim chance that we might go home but just in case we are here for while he is building some Legos. 

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So all of the signs were good for us leaving here today. We had an echo and X-ray. We heard the X-ray was good enough for us to go home (still a little fluid on the side view). And then . . . 

He threw up. All of his breakfast and all of his meds. So now they are discussing whether this prevents us from going home today. And of course, we still haven’t received the echo report yet. So we pray for a good report and that the doctor will allow us to go home. 

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There is not much to report today. We had a ton of visitors so between the visits there was eating and napping and not much else happened. We were still stuck on this floor until 6:30 tonight when he doctor ordered Ben off of telemetry which meant Ben finally was able to leave the floor. We did do a lot of walking. Ben walked 1.74 miles today. For a boy who just had his heart reconstructed less than a week ago, that is awesome! 

We had a pretty disruptive night last night. He was woken up about every hour for one thing or another. We hope that tonight will be a little less hectic. He is no longer in any I.v. medicines. We requested that he get a break for respiratory therapiat to give him a break. So hopefully a little more sleep will help him out. 

We were finally able to make it off the floor to the 16th floor for some fun. 

  
Plus some awesome visitors.

 
Lots of volunteers who brought around a video cart, a cart where he could pick  free toy, and the best . . . The snowcone cart. 

  The sugar rush was the best part of the  day. He was more like his old self again. 

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A friend brought dinner to the hospital last night for Chris and I.  Wonderful hamburgers with bacon and fries that smelled divine when they walked in the room. Ben can eat anything he wants, so I asked him if he would like to eat some of my burger.  His response . . . 

“I don’t want to die today. Thanks.”

Good point, boy. Probably shouldn’t be filling his body with all that grease after he just got his heart rebuilt. But that bacon sure did look good. 

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   “Daddy, don’t make me laugh. It hurts.”  

So we are finally settled in our room, Daddy came up to visit. Ben wanted to watch a movie but didn’t care what we watched. So in honor of Daddy, we watched “Ghostbusters”. Listening to Daddy quote his favorite lines throughout the entire  movie made us all laugh. It was good to see Ben laugh. 

Now the goal is to regulate his blood pressure, clear his lungs, pass his culture, etc., etc. Nothing to it!

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We received the official word this morning that we are being moved from ICU to a regular floor. But it is 2:00 and we are still here. Apparently there are no beds open on the 15th floor so we have to wait until someone is discharged. Ben and I offered to help someone pack and go home but they said no. Bummer. So we sit here and wait. Or sleep if you are Ben. 

In the meantime, the girls have been having crazy fun with their Aunt Debra. She took them on their first roller coaster ride. 

   This is the before picture where they are a little scared. 
   

I think Ainsley is in shock and may never go on a roller coaster again.  

  
But at least they had fun and got to do something to keep their mind off of their brother. Although I don’t think they wanted to switch emotions from concern to absolute terror! But I love it. I told Aunt Deb that she was now in charge of all high adventure rides!

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Ok. So the night shift (Daddy and Uncle Will) did good work last night. They got his central line pulled and off of his supplemental oxygen. They even brought Aunt Sarah in as a ringer to get Ben up and walking.  So hats off to the night team. Of course, I have to come in and make nice with the nurses. “Yes. I promise not to push buttons. Yes. I promise not to make medical decisions (like taking off his oxygen just to see what would happen. By the way, it did work and it was a good decision) without talking to you first. Yes. I promise not to show you how to use your own equipment better than you can (When they took Ben’s temp, it came up as a fever. But they had it set to auxiliary which adds a degree. Chris fixed it for them.)” 

Ben is still bradycardic this morning. While he is sleeping, his pulse drops from the 70s to the 40s-50s. They think it is because the blood pressure meds are catching up to him. But they will monitor it closely to see what happens. The good news is that we will hopefully still get to move out of ICU and into a regular room. Yeah!! All signs are pointing in that direction. Ben will be thrilled to hear that. 

When he wakes up . . . 

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After seven laps . . . 

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