SLC Deja Vu

This will just be a short update, since it's only been a few days since the last time I posted something here.

Owen is home now. He's been home for the last four days. It's really really nice to have him home. We get to feed him and bathe him and put him in his swing (see pictures), and we get to do it all outside of the supervision of nurses. Well...almost. A home-care nurse shows up once a week to check up on him. She weighs him and makes sure that his blood-oxygen saturation levels are acceptable. She came by for a "45 minute" visit on Saturday afternoon, but she ended up staying for an hour and a half.

Chloe is back at Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake. She's been so irritable and fussy for the last week that the doctors at Utah Valley have done a follow-up head ultrasound, and it looks like her ventricles are starting to increase in size again. So, she was transported back to PCMC on Saturday afternoon. Before she went, I spent a couple of hours at the hospital with her, cuddling with her in a rocking chair. She fell asleep against my chest, and I fell asleep with my cheek against her head.

When I called to check up on her this morning, the nurse said that she was on her way back from the operating room. I was a little surprised, since I didn't even know that they were going to do a surgery, but they said that they called Julie earlier this morning and got authorization from her, so that was okay. When I called Julie later, she said that the news is that the surgery went well, and that they replaced the shunt. Apparently, there was a clog of "old blood" in the shunt tubing, so they had to replace it.

We're going to go up to see her this afternoon, so I'll post an update on her condition and temperament sometime later (tomorrow? the next day? next week? who knows?).

My mom is going to be in town this week (she's in school at FSU in Florida, and this is her spring break), and it'll be really nice to have her around to help take care of Owen (also, she hasn't met the kids yet in person, so it'll be nice for them to get acquainted). Next week, Julie's mom will be here (she'll be playing hookie from her elementary school principalling job in Yakima, WA), and her presence will also surely be incredibly helpful.

--Benji