Tuesday Evening, 10/16/07

The last few days have slowly gotten better. They've managed to get an ostomy bag to stay and his skin has gotten much better. He went into the PICU yesterday while they started him on lipids again. They wanted to keep an eye on him in case he had a reaction. Everything went fine, and he's starting to cycle the times he's hooked up to TPN and lipids. Last night he was unplugged for 4 hours, tonight he's off for 6 hours. They expect him to have 8 hours off each day by the time he comes home. They've also put him on Zantac again, which has helped his stomach.

Now that he's feeling better, we've been able to get Nathan up and walking again. He's probably spending more time walking than he is sitting or lying down. He's getting around quite well. His favorite activity is to walk out to the atrium, take the glass elevator down to the ground floor, and throw coins in the water fountain. He also got to see Bailey, a friendly Dalmation that the owner brings out to the pediatric unit once in a while. He was a little shy, but went up with me to pet the dog and feed him a treat. One of the ladies from Child Life took a polaroid of him with the Bailey. Child Life is a department in the hospital that helps tend to the more personal and emotional aspects of the kids and their families. They're very nice people and have always been very helpful and caring.

The doctors told Christa today that they're shooting to have him home by next Tuesday. We were hoping for this week, but I think the whole safflower oil episode put the kibosh on those plans. We'll just be very thankful to have him home.