Day 11

When we were in Clayton's pre-op meeting with the surgeon's PA, he told us some Fontans get lucky and get out of the hospital in 7 to 10 days, but most kids spend at least 2 to 3 weeks in the hospital, if not more. Now that we're on post-op day 11, I think I've accepted the fact that Clayton will not be one of the lucky ones, and we're going to be here a while. Good thing I fully unpacked my suitcase the day we moved into the Ronald McDonald House. I knew it wasn't going to be a quick stay, and I'd be much more depressed about unpacking if I were doing it now.


Today was a medically uneventful day for Clayton, which is always a blessing. Ryan, like a knight in shining armor, spends every night at the hospital with Clayton so that I can come back to RMH, sleep in a bed, and come back showered, blow dried, and half way decent looking each day. It just makes the whole experience a little more bearable. Anyway, last night Clayton had some bad dreams, and our roommate had a lot alarms, so Ryan didn't get much rest. Mom and I were planning on taking the little boys to San Jose, so Pop was on call to sit with Clayton the greater part of today, and I must say, Pop is kind of a slave driver.

The day started off with another visit from Carly, the pet therapy golden retriever. She even got in bed with Clayton today! He was in heaven, and Carly is definitely the best part of LPCH for Clayton. A little later, Pop had been misinformed about the preschool schedule for the day, so after hiking all the way over there, Pop conducted his own preschool, which included books and educational games on the iPad. Then there was a hike back to bed for lunch. Then they went to the playroom at 2:30 and stayed until it closed at 4pm. Clayton came back for a good snooze, and then had dinner. Then he had to go back to the playroom for evening hours because it was pet night, and he was excited to see all the dogs. I came up after all the outtings, and Clayton was pretty exhausted. It was definitely one of his better days. No pokes, no dressing changes, no torture.

Mom and I took the little boys to the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose. Let's just say it was an interesting trip. Don't you know the one time in my life I failed to pack spare clothes for the children, they both really could have used them! One child was naked, wearing only a pair of Converse, by the time we made it back to Mom and Dad's hotel. I can't even put into words how many things went wrong. Oh well. We all survived.

Mom and Dad leave with the boys tomorrow afternoon. I've really enjoyed spending some time with my munchkins, and I will miss them soooo much, but having them here for just a week has really shown me that it is not possible to have them here full time. Hopefully this won't drag on too much longer, and then we can all be back together again in Hokahoma City, Hokahoma, as Eli calls it.