The great big update post

It's been a long 40 hours since my last update, and there's been lots of news. Pretty much all of it is good. Last night at around 9:30, we were moved to the step down unit. That was about an hour and a half after the picture at the right was taken of Teddy and his Grandpa Petry. There are still visitor restrictions, and so there's still a very limited group who can visit. However, it is so much quieter here, you can hear yourself think and Teddy doesn't have his neighbors waking him so often. All in all, a huge improvement over where we were. Amy and I can now sleep here and maybe even get a little sleep. Which is what I'm doing tonight. Don't worry, Amy gets tomorrow night, either here, or at home and I get to sleep then.

The second big bit of news is that Teddy no longer has any lines, tubes or wires running into him. They took out the last IV this evening. They've completely weaned him off O2 from the wall and he's breathing all on his own, and him numbers are great. He's made a great recovery clinically speaking and he's now doing so much better. It's almost unbelievable how much has changed from Monday night to now. 96 hours of rest and care has left Teddy so much better off. They even cleaned his incision site today and replaced the dressing on that and on the drain tube. Suffice it to say that babies apparently rank right behind Wolverine in terms of regenerative healing abilities. The incision is a clean cut that's slightly bruised around the edges and the drain hole is a small little hole in his skin. It's amazing.

The picture to the right is a picture of what Teddy's heart looks like, more or less. Today he also had an echo cardiogram, and they were looking at that (more or less). There was a little concern for a few minutes about something in there. There's a small hole that lets a little blood move from the right to left side in his heart. It's nothing to be concerned about, and is actually not that uncommon in the general population. It's something to add to his file for things to look at next time when they have to replace this valve (may it be 4 or 5 years from now). All the doctors and the surgeon looked at the echo, and they all concur that Teddy's heart looks fantastic, and that he is pretty much ready to go home.

That's the last, and best bit of news. It is very likely that Teddy will go home either tomorrow or Sunday, and they're thinking tomorrow is more likely. Personally, I can't wait to see him there. It's been a little strange being here. There's lots of faces we recognize, nurses, staff and doctors that we remember and who remember Teddy. I've heard from lots of people who are amazed at how much he's grown in the last year. Hopefully, tomorrow they'll see him smiling and laughing like we do at home all the time. He's spent a big part of his time here crying and whimpering in pain, and that's really hard to see, but he's spent the last 4 hours sleeping, less a half hour to wake up and get vitals and medicine. I'm hoping that he keeps on sleeping through the night, and that when his mother gets here tomorrow, she gets to cuddle him, and then pack up to take him home.