First week home

Wednesday we made our way to Stormont Vail Hospital where we had Henry’s blood tested for the first time since being home. His level was on the low end, so they have increased his dosage on his twice a day shot, but with the holiday next week, we won’t need to go back until July 11th to check on how the blood thinner is doing. A plus for Henry! He is “improving” with his twice a day shots.

Today we headed back up to Children’s Mercy to have more blood work, x-ray, and short echo done to see how his heart is doing. Everything looked good or normal! We will now be able to give Henry 20 ounces of water a day, stop one of three diuretics, but we need to add more salt to his diet. Probably the only time cardiology will say “limit your water, eat more salt!” Henry is still on a low fat diet until next week. I believe a chocolate croissant will be requested once this has been lifted.

The stitches have been removed where his drain tubes were at. The site there, as well as his chest, still look good! The chest will take 4-6 weeks to heal. Let me tell you, it’s been a little more of a challenge to pick him up by scoping him under the bottom.

I apparently spoke too soon earlier, as we have started up on the Tylenol again, at least once a day. The oxycodone has also been removed from his prescibed medicines.

Henry is taking about two naps a day. He is taking his normal after lunch nap, but about an hour after his morning shot, he will usually take a long cat nap.

He is also not sleeping that great at night. Since he is being limited on water still, we haven’t been able to give his mug of water to take to bed. Hopefully not having that, and some mild pain, is what causing the sleeping problems. The fireworks probably aren’t helping the situation right now either.

Still, not too bad for having open heart surgery a little over two weeks ago! Thank you everyone for your prayers and support! We head back up to see Henry’s cardiologist on July 9th. Hopefully another good report!