Everything looks like we will be getting discharged tomorrow!

Sunley has a very small pleural effusion in her right lung, and a minor pneumothorax (like, tiny) in her left side, but neither of those things should keep us in the hospital unless they get worse, which no one expects. We will be going home on a pretty aggressive regimen of three different diuretics, potassium, aspirin, and pepcid for her tummy, as well as sticking to our fluid restriction of 770 cc for the next 4 weeks at least. She will be on sternal precautions (careful how we pick her up, and careful how she moves) for the next 4-6 weeks (6-8 weeks total since surgery). We’ll be caring for her incision and chest tube wounds, and unfortunately she won’t be doing any swimming in the ocean or the apartment pool. But we are ready to get our family back together again, and to make yet another temporary home until we get home-home.

Doing another 4-6 weeks of recovery outside of the hospital sounds pretty intimidating, but we know that once we just jump in and do it, things will become doable. I told the team here that my priority isn’t getting home tomorrow; My priority is staying home. I know how hard it is on all the kids when Sunley gets admitted, and being readmitted so soon after a discharge seems like it would be even worse. Everyone seems really confident, though, so as long as her numbers and X-ray are good in the morning, we will start the very tedious and lengthy process of discharge.

I am really emotional about leaving, but I would say that mostly I am really, really happy to go and excited to watch Sunley thrive with saturations in the 90s. I’m excited to see our Houston tribe at church soon, and to celebrate a big homecoming in Oklahoma when it happens. We don’t know yet how long we will be staying in Houston — we will determine that alongside our cardiologist, outpatient.

Tomorrow will be a very busy and exhausting day with lots of paperwork and a whole lot of waiting, if it goes as our previous discharges have gone. I will try and update, but it may be pretty late in the evening by the time I get around to blogging — especially if I’m catching up on snuggles with my 3 heart-healthy kiddos!

Even though nothing is for sure until we are walking out of here (well, maybe even not then!), we said goodbye to lots of friends today. It was bittersweet, but mostly sweet. We’ve been having doctors and nurses sign a hospital gown for Sunley that she will wear tomorrow. We missed lots of people, but it is definitely a sweet keepsake for all of us.

Tonight was my turn to go to the apartment at bedtime to tuck in the other three kids. It’s such a weird feeling stepping in and out of this alternate world. It is very difficult to merge both places in my head, and I’m constantly feeling like I should be in the other place. I remember those feelings completely overtaking me at times in 2018, constantly wondering if my kids in Midland were sad or needed me, but not wanting to call and interrupt them and make them sad. I’m very grateful that this time has been a much shorter ordeal than before. And I’m really grateful to our parents, who are the only reason Derek and I have been able to do this together.