Let's try this again...

It's back!

If you have been following our journey very long you may remember the excitement this car seat brought me in the NICU.  (You can read about it here.)  Well, that moment of excitement happened again today.  This morning Dr Bradley, the surgeon, came in and removed Brinkley's chest tube and the pacing wires that remained.  This was followed by an echo and an x ray.  These were to make sure that there was no bleeding around the heart and that the drainage had truly dried up.  The doctors were pleased with these.  

This left us with an IV, the monitoring wires (heart rate and oxygen meter), and his G-tube (feeding tube).  The monitoring wires will stay until we are ready to walk out the door and his feeding tube will remain.  If you are keeping score, that means that the IV is the only thing left tying him to the hospital.  

This afternoon, the IV was turned off!  Other than feeding times, he is no longer bound to his bed or even his room!  He has made incredible progress over the last few days.  After everything was removed the nurse told me that they were ready to do his car seat test.  (You may remember that Brinkley failed his test both times in NICU and we came home in a car bed. We are trying to go home from MUSC in a regular car seat.)  Just like in NICU, this is a sign that home is on the horizon!  

I have gotten mixed reviews from the team today as far as the exact date, but it is safe to safe that we should be discharged by Wednesday!   I am hoping that I will get a more definitive answer after rounds are made in the morning.  

Please pray specifically that he will pass the car seat test.  Today they attempted it twice and he was so close to passing.  They will try again over night or tomorrow, but he will have to pass it twice to go home in his regular seat.  Pray that my little procrastinator will try again and get it this time!  Here's to spending New Years in the upstate!