HOME!!

Yes, we are home!  As the early afternoon hours went by & Logan slept-slept-slept.  I was not hopeful of us getting out tonight.  Hard to keep up on drinking when you sleep the day away.

But in the later afternoon, he perked up.  Drank some.  And ate a TON of fruit (which has liquid in it, so win-win!)  I think he will live on fruit for the next few days. 

I told the doctors & nurses I know he was feeling better today, because today he NEEDED me.  Yesterday he let anyone do anything to him without a peep.  Today he sat nice & cooperated too, but he had to do so on my lap.  He felt good enough to actually be scared & need his mama today.  From his chest x-ray this afternoon they could not rule out pneumonia.  So based on an inconclusive x-ray & his lingering fever, they decided to treat him like he has pneumonia, caused by the sticky secretions from RSV building up in his lungs.  When Dr. Harrison called in the evening to discuss the x-ray with me & said they were going to start him on antibiotics, I expected the next words out of his mouth to be "so I think we'll keep him overnight."  BUT instead he said he looks so much better.  He is cheerful.  Resting well.  He is having lots of wet diapers.  He has not needed oxygen.  So he was comfortable sending us home.  We finally got discharged shortly after 7pm.  Only to discover there was a bad accident on the interstate on our way home, so it took us an hour to get home.  But we are here, safe & sound.

They are all getting Tylenol or Motrin around the clock.  Their poor little bodies have to ache from all the coughing they do.  And Logan I will probably dose with both as he needs it for his fever.  Livi gets oral steroids 2x a day for another day or 2.  Logan gets antibiotics 1x a day for the next 10 days.  And they all get pink eye drops 2x a day.  Hayden's pink eye treatment is technically done, but I'm just going to keep giving him drops until I'm done with Logan's doses & we can clean the toys well.  Otherwise we will end up doing the pink eye thing all over again in 5 days.  Plus Livi's inhaled steroids 2x a day.  And Albuterol treatments as needed.  We're a mess!!

This is basically like having a full assignment at work!  3 patients.  All those meds.  Plus I'm going to keep paper handy & "chart" all their wet diapers {or Livi's pee in the potty!} & how much they are drinking so I can keep track of how everyone is doing & who needs special attention forcing fluids or whatever. 

They are putting Logan on the antibiotic Omnicef.  The resident MD & pharmacist both warned us that about 5% of kiddos who are allergic to Amoxicillin react to Omnicef.  Dr. Harrison said they use this frequently as an alternative & cross-reactions are rare.  But knowing my mom is allergic to every antibiotic under the sun, I'm just hoping we don't wind up in the clinic or ER for an allergic reaction yet.  I'll be watching him like a hawk!  Cross your fingers {& toes!}

They are all extremely snotty & coughy.  So I don't think there will be much good sleep in this house for anyone for a while.  But for the first time in a week all 3 kiddos are tucked in under the same roof.  And I'm perfectly happy with us not-sleeping for a while, as long as we are doing it under one roof.

RSV can take as many as 3 weeks to completely run its course.  So we will be on quarantine for a while.  And hopefully we continue trending up & they stay strong enough to finish healing at home.  My work advised that I go ahead & apply for family medical leave as I'm anticipating needing a few weeks off until this has all run its course, especially since I have missed a whole week already. 

While it was a long, long week at Children's.  And having kids there back-to-back sucked.  In the end we have to be glad it happened this way.  I do not know what we would have done had 2 or God forbid all 3 of them been inpatient at the same time?!  I know they are so happy to be back together, they crawled so nicely into bed tonight.  I have only seen Hayden for 9 or so hours this entire past week!  I feel so bad for him too.  Even though he hasn't been as sick, this whole process has to be hard on him too. 

Thank you to everyone for your thoughts & prayers. Thanks to those of you who brought by food to the hospital or to our home.  Your support & generosity never fail to amaze me.  We are amazingly blessed with loving friends, family & our Church.  When we get settled in if we need something I promise I will reach out to those of you who have called & offered to help. 

Despite the coughs, snot & crabbiness I'm anticipating for tomorrow, I'm just so excited to spend an entire day with all 3 of them!