Pacemaker Recovery

Last night, Eli was in the same medical state as the night of his surgery. He was still on sedatives, heavy diuretics, had significant edema (fluid swelling) and his canula was still feeding a full 6L/hr of air. As we left for the night, we began emotionally bracing for a very long stay, realizing an additional week or two might be realistic.

This morning, we decided to head home for the morning to spend time with Paige. It was a great morning of hugs, kisses and laughter. We've missed her so badly, and it was obvious she was missing us, too. She's been having lots of fun with grandmas, but it's been 5 days since we've seen her in person. We ate lunch together, read books together, and had lots of real-life contact with our favorite little girl. As we tucked her in for her nap, we explained we were heading back to the hospital and maybe we could talk to her "on the computer" (webcam/Skype). She started to cry a little, but we made it through. As I write this, we're waiting for her to wake up from her nap so we can show her Eli. Yesterday when we talked to her on the phone, her first question was "How is Eli doing?" She's an awesome big sister.

Now, we're sitting in Eli's room again. We're so excited to let you all know, he made huge strides today while we were gone! He's only had one sedative dose today, and they're trying to hold those back as much as possible. He's on all the same medications as home, now. He's on standard feeds, just like at home, and his air is all the way down to 2L/hour! High flow only goes down to 1L/hour, so he'll be back to "normal" shortly, if he stays on this schedule!

He was awake and alert when we got here. He grabbed at our faces and very obviously interested in us more than anything else. He's still a little groggy, but you could see hints of a smile when we played with him.

Here he is, within the last hour.