Home!

We managed to escape out of the hospital on a Saturday!

Last weekend went well. We got sent up to recovery late Friday after waiting half a day to get a PICC line placed in Henry. A few IV lines were pulled, as well as his pacemaker wires. Then up we went to the recovery floor! Starting Saturday night, the nurses started to have problem drawing blood from Henry’s PICC line. So after a few rounds of TPA, we ended up doing an ultrasound on his arm.

It saddens me to report Henry has/had a small clot on the line. Because of this we had to start doing manual blood draws for lab, as well as start a regime of twice a day shots to thin out Henry’s blood. We will need to do this for three months, then have a follow up with hematology.

Honestly I think that set Henry back a few days. He was a pretty hapy camper Monday. We had musical therapy come by, and he was smiling a lot! He was also starting to eat, as well as getting close to his liquid restriction level. It has been a struggle now to do meds, where before we didn’t have problems. Henry also used to do great with blood draws, but after someone tried drawing from his ankle, that really put him over the edge.

So we took it it easy with him on Tuesday. By Wednesday he was still fighting on a few things, but we made it a priorty to have the tv off, and to start using the hospital bed as a napping and bedtime only place, with a couple of exceptions.

By Thursday his drainage was dropping, and the cardiology team decided to pull the drain tubes on Friday. We prepared Henry by providing him some medicine beforehand to help ease the pain, and asked to do lab work as well to get everything done and over with. Our lovenox blood thinner was delivered as well, and we spoke with our Pallaitive Care Nurse, discussing what Henry’s next steps with that team will be. Since the drain tubes came out, we also took Henry off oxygen. He had to be monitored for an hour, and he did great!

We left the hospital before 10. We got home, did some unpacking, ate lunch, and Henry took a nap in his room.

We are all exhausted to say the least. We have 3 diuretics we will be working on to wean off, as well as monitoring Henry’s water intake, being on a low fat diet, and making sure to add some additional sodium to his diet. 

We return back to the hospital Friday, and will do lab work and xrays prior to the doctor visit. We have a visit scheduled with Henry’s cardiologist in July.

Thank you everyone for your thoughts, prayers, and support! It is wonderful to be home.