Tubeless Again

Gage's chest tube is officially out! It had only drained 30 ml in the last 24 hours and the chest x ray looked good, so they pulled the chest tube.  Now they will watch him for one more day to make sure the fluid doesn't re accumulate.  If his chest x ray looks good tomorrow morning, then we are out of here (the hospital that is)!

Once he is out of the hospital, his schedule is full of doctor appointments, biopsies, lab draws and physical therapy.  Oh yeah, and regular school in there somewhere. We are just excited to get out of the hospital and go back to our "new normal" schedule.  He is ready to be out of here and is excited to go back to Nixon and see his friends.  We've never been in the situation where our kids were established in a public school before transplant.  The transplant team has never had a patient established in a local public school as well.  So, the deal is, he can return to school at Nixon, BUT, he must wear his mask and I will attend with him for the first few weeks to make sure he behaves and is using his sternal precautions.

The long term plan, for now, is as follows.  The kids will finish school out here in California.  Every one's last day is June 1st.  As to the plan after that, TBD.  Gage post transplant stays in the area for 3 months.  At 3 months after transplant, the biopsies are spaced to monthly, from every 2 weeks.  This will put our time ending right after July 4th.  HOWEVER,  IF everything goes well, and Gage continues to get zeros on his biopsies, we may approach the team about going home at the 2 month mark.  Time will tell, for now we are just going to focus on getting him out of the hospital and eating better.

Sierra is excited for prom tomorrow and Megan is working on 'practice make-up" sessions in prep for her prom the following week. Fun times ahead for everyone.

Gage enjoying building the Legos with a little Ativan still on board.

Before and after pulling the chest tube.  Note: He was on a good dose of Ativan.  Although he looks like he is screaming in the second one (which he was), it was very short lived and he has been a happy camper ever since.