4-22-10 Recovering

Dean is doing very well today. When we got to the PICU, he was waking up a little and drinking from a bottle. They were able to remove most of his tubes by noon and take him to the pediatric recovery ward. He still has a tube to drain his incision, an IV line in his ankle, and various monitors. They just removed his catheter this afternoon. He is taking pain medication orally and getting fentnyl through push button IV when needed. He is definitely very uncomfortable. We have not held him yet because we can tell he is much happier to lie still. He is very groggy and drifts in and out. He is opening his eyes and alert in between which is nice, but mostly he is resting. Tomorrow will probably be very different. We expect him to be more alert, but possibly more fussy. We have also been told that he may have more swelling from all of the IV fluids. I am looking forward to being able to hold and nurse him again soon. We are told that he will probably be released on Saturday, but that is not certain yet. It seems like we have a long way to go yet for that, but I think he will be making progress in leaps and bounds in the next 24 hours. We are very thankful for how well he is doing. The doctors all seem to think he right where he should be and in same ways better. God is good. On a lighter note... I found out that Dean didn't need much blood for his surgery, but he did use part of the unit I donated. The fainting was all worth it! The doctors said we were the first parents they ever had to direct donate, and they were amused when we told them about our experience with the red cross.