Saturday evening

Gage Aurelius, the Man of Steel, is hanging in there.  Right now he is on 2 IV's, milrinone to help support the right side of his heart and heparin to protect against blood clots.  His blood pressure has been trending up over the last few days so they are watching him close for additional brain bleeds, and aggressively treating the blood pressure.  All very serious issues.  He is also low on sodium, so (believe it or not) they are giving him sodium tablets and giving him full access to all the salty food he wants ie pickles and bacon and chips.  So, at his request, I walked to the Stanford cafeteria and bought a whole dill pickle and gave it to him.  He thought he was really getting away with one.  But for today, or until his sodium is up, he can have full access to all the pickles he wants!!  

Pain management for this little guy has a been a bit tricky.  Last night he was howling in pain from the chest tube site, and there didn't seem to be anything that helps it.  I rubbed his back for about 30 minutes which seemed to help.  He was up every 2 hours with discomfort and pain.   Then he will go most of the day feeling fine, so who knows.  The big mystery is that dang chest tube. It will be 2 weeks on Monday since his surgery.  By now the chest tubes should be done draining, but not on the Man of Steel.  Who knows how long it will take.  We all agree, he will feel a lot better when that tube comes out.

Right now there are 5 kids on 3 West who have the HeartWare devise.  Gage is taking longer than others to recover and drop these IV's and drain tubes.  He should be fine, and should be discharged from the hospital, but is definitely going at his own pace.  He is walking about 2 laps around 3 West twice a day.  That is very good, but is expected to get much stronger.  He is also on the feeding tube every night for 12 hours at 60ml /hour.  Stacy is doing a calarie count to see if they can drop the tube.  
Gage has named his 12 day old buddy; the HeartWare that hangs around his neck and sits next to his body is now called Blackwood.  Not sure where he got that name from, maybe the first Sherlock Holmes movie, but doubt it. Nevertheless, Blackwood is the name of his HeartWare.

Tonight Stacy is stay with Mr. Aurelius on 3 West, he was pretty sad and wanted his mommy. The kids figured out that I will be going home with them, and that Sierra is NOT driving home alone.  We got a lot of mileage out of the joke, until they figured it out.  Some the doctors and nurses were a bit concerned that we would let Sierra drive that far solo this all the kids.  It took them a while to figure out what the 'wink' meant.  

We are leaving in the morning and don't plan on coming back until Dec 17, which will be Sierra's next biopsy. In my book, that is a long time for our family to be apart.  I know other families can do the long distance thing, so I guess we can too.  Seems like we have done a lot of that this year.  One thing is for sure, I will miss by wife and little boy.  Next time I see him, I hope it is here at the RMH!!!

 A nice big dill pickle all to himself.

 Megan saying good bye to her little brother.

Aurelius' first massage from a professional!!

Yes, quality sibling time around the wii in the play room. 

First time to the play room since pre-surgery.

 Alright, Hunter and Lindsey were driving us nuts, so I took them on a run/bike ride around Stanford campus.