Max continued to do well without oxygen assistance, and on Wednesday he ate, slept, and played like normal and would go hours past his 'due' times for pain medications. At 9:30 pm the surgical team decided to take his chest tube out, and he was more upset that they had to hold him down than anything else. I was FINALLY able to hold him and we snuggled up on the chair in his room for several hours. They also decided to take out his IV's since he didn't need morphine (hadn't taken it in 12 hours) Maximus was so very happy about that because it meant he could suck on his fingers again.
Thursday morning the doctors decided that since he was off oxygen, his chest tube was out, his IV's were out, and his vitals were all good....they would send him HOME! We had to rush off to pack up our things and check out of our room. We were home before dinner time! For now they want Maximus to be on Oxygen at night since he had some moments where his oxygen levels dropped into the 80's while he was sleeping, and they cautioned us to watch him carefully when he was taking naps during they day. He needs to 'go easy' for a while to make sure he heals fully and still needs to stay away from people to avoid getting sick (Can you imagine getting a cold after having 1/3 of your lung removed? Yikes!) Eventually, the other parts of his lung will expand and fill the empty space and until that happens he will continue to be immune compromised, even more so now than he was when he first came home. He has received his first Synagis shot (RSV shot) and I pray constantly that he will be safe from RSV, since he is recovering from surgery. S and I will continue to change our clothes and/or shower when we get home from work as well as staying away from public places as much as possible. We are hoping that by summer time we will be able to go out and about with Max, though it is worth it to keep him home if it means keeping him healthy.
We are blessed and we know it, and continue to be speechless from the support, prayers, and kindness from everyone.
