Closer to home

Today was our first full day in the step-down unit. I had a GREAT night of sleep in the room with Magnus. When we were in the ICU, I was sleeping in a room that was also a parent lounge, and people didn't clear out until 10 or 11 at night, and then continued to come in and make noise, and then I wanted to be back in Magnus's room before he woke up, so I was only really getting 5 or 6 hours of sleep a night. Last night, I went to sleep before 8 p.m. and didn't really wake up until a phlebotomist came to draw Magnus's blood at 6 a.m. (Blood draws are always first thing in the morning...what a sadistic way to wake up!)

Given yesterday's failed blood draw attempts, I had spoken with our nurse practitioner about having a vascular access specialist come back to draw the blood, but I guess somehow the message had not been passed on. Turns out the vascular access specialists are not here on the weekends (??? I understand that people like to have weekends off, but it seems like that would be something you would want to have 24-7 in a children's hospital). BUT, they managed to find a nurse who is good at finding veins, and he promised us that he would not make an attempt unless he felt very confident that he would be successful, and successful he was, on the first try!

Magnus also had a chest X-ray and an echocardiogram this morning, and the team did their rounds in here at around 10 a.m. The attending was not worried about his oxygen saturations, and said that he could be weaned off oxygen today. Right now he is on half a liter of oxygen (basically the lowest setting there is) and doing fine. They said that they want to keep him for a day after he's weaned off of oxygen, so barring any unforeseen events, I guess that means Tuesday. At least I hope so, because my mom has already booked her plane ticket home!

Magnus spent about 3 hours out of bed today, including almost 2 hours playing in the playroom. He's still very weak and unsteady when he tries to walk, but I suppose that is to be expected after having his heart stopped for 2 hours, 2 surgeries, and almost 2 weeks in bed!

Here's hoping for continued good news tomorrow...