Day 37 Home is where the heart is.

I have to tweak that a little bit. Home is where the reconstructed heart is. I had a friend tell me that today after yesterdays post on home. I have always heard that but t has never really meant as much as it does now. I would love to be at home with the family but but it really does not matter as long as I am with the 2 of them. Owen has had another good day. He continues to be fussy but I think it is that the poor little guy wants to eat. He had some Tylenol today by mouth and he thought it was the best thing ever. They are continuing to advance his feeds. He is up to 5 mls of breast milk every hour now. They said that they would advance more tonight. It as a big day for Chelsea and I because we were able to hold Owen again for the first time in 2 weeks. It is hard to to decide what is bothering him, Is he hungry? in pain? Might be a combo of the both of them. We just want to see him get to eat more. Feeds have been slow to increase because of potential for re-intubation, possible chyle-leak, and fluid status. We think he will be just fine eating by mouth! His respiratory rate is still fast so we all have been trying different things. We found that increasing his oxygen did nothing to help slow him down but controlling his pain and helping him relax is doing better at calming him. I have wondered and talked with the nurses if he might be going through withdrawls from narcotics. He was on a narcotic drip for over 2 weeks. He does not have all of the symptoms of withdrawl. We will have to wait and see. Owen had a good amount of visitors over the last 2 days. He was able to see Papa Rich and friend Matt. Then Carolyn and her mom Debbie came by today as well and were able to meet little Owen for the first time. Cuzz Eric came over last night and met him for the first time as well. It has been great to see all the wonderful friends comes over to see us and him.


Chelsea and I had a good night last night. We went out and had some pizza and beer which always good comfort food. I love how there are so many dog people down here and how dog friendly of a city this is. For example, I met Ike last night. Ike is a very calm black Great Dane. My dream dog for everyone who does not know. Chelsea initially said that I could have one after Owen is 6 months old. That was the deal before Owen was born. We might have to adjust that depending on how Owen does but it put a big smile on my face to meet Ike. It was great that the owner was very friendly and was talking great danes up to Chelsea. Chelsea seems to think that they are too big, but they just want love.

We then finished the night off (last night) with finishing the season 2 of Entourage. Nothing much else going on. To answer Helen's question on the last blog we will have a welcome home party for Owen sometime after getting back. I think that will be wonderful to see everyone. Owen can't wait to meet his fans, and of course we will have hand sanitizer to go around! :) Hope all is well with everyone and thank you all for the support.
-Chris

P.S. The bed broke again last night but we were to tired to fix it in the middle of the night so we woke up with a back ache and in an odd position.