Outa Here!

Sunday evening, Declan was perhaps the happiest we had seen since our arrival. He kept asking to go to the "playroom", and "ride" (get pushed around) in the wagons and bikes. The whole floor was settling down for the night, but not Declan. He wanted to keep going and going: more rides, more playing, more bubbles. There would be no stopping him!

"Out here, out here", Declan kept repeating all through the day on Monday. I think he overheard the nurses discussing the possibility of discharge from the hospital and put two and two together. We thought for sure we were looking at a Tuesday/Wednesday discharge. But Sunday night the nurse informed us that his discharge might be Monday since he was doing so well.

So early Monday morning the nurses gave Declan an echo on his heart - they said the fenestration was probably closed but liked the flow and functionality of the heart so they were not worried about it. His lungs looked good and the cost was clear for a discharge. However, even though we were leaving it was one of the tougher days for Declan. He had to have an EKG to make sure his heart rhythms looked good. But that involved putting the dozen or so "sticky" leads all over his chest and after the EKG, each one being painfully pulled off. Next, the nurses removed the bandage around his stitches from the chest tubes - more pain. Last was the removal of the IV port remaining in his arm - which again, involved removing the tape securing it - more pain. By that point he was done. "out here, out here" he kept urging. Declan's defensive mechanism was to close his eyes and pretend he was asleep when a nurse or doctor would start talking to him - maybe that would prevent them from pulling something sticky off of his body and causing pain. At last we were outa there, but he was not a happy camper. We tried taking a picture with his heart surgeon,Dr. Emani and another picture by the hospital entrance but the pictures were filled mostly with grumpy expressions.

But there was no happier boy once we stepped back into our house. No amount of grumpiness could match the energy possessed by his 4 year old sister. Cambria was thrilled to have Declan back and you could literally see her energy being infused into Declan. It was so fun to watch. If I were to use one cartoon to describe Cambria, it would be the little squirrel, Hammy, in "Over The Hedge" when he drinks a cup of coffee with caffeine and becomes super hyper. This is Cambria's constant state of motion, happiness and excitement - and it is very contagious. At one point I had to stop Declan from jumping on the couch. Two little buddies, reunited at last!