Best news!!!

After talking with Dr. Breitbart, the cardiologist, and the nurse practitioner late today, we were told the best thing we have heard since Jack made it through his open heart surgery...we get to leave the hospital tomorrow!!!!  YEAH!!!  I am so ready to leave, and I know Jack is ready.  All night last night he kept saying "I want to go home".  Now, if I can only get the poor kid to understand that we are going to stay with our family friends for two nights here in Boston before flying back to Atlanta to get Evie and then to Birmingham.  We want to stay some days to just make sure everything is good.

Tomorrow we have another x-ray to check for fluid in his chest and lungs and blood work.  But as long as both look good we can walk out the doors.  We will meet with EP (pacemaker people) one more time, too.  We are a little discouraged about Jack's pacemaker.  On Friday the pacemaker was set to watch his own rhythm and pick up if his ventricle doesn't beat.  Well, as of today his ratio is 2:1 (for every 2 beats of his atrium, he is only pumping his ventricle once) so they had to set his pacemaker to beat his ventricle every time.  So, in other words he is continuously being paced.  In any other kid, this would not be a bad thing, but Jack only has one ventricle and this constant pacing is not good on the longevity of his one ventricle.  We need this one ventricle to last the rest of his life, in order for him to avoid a heart transplant, and if the pacemaker weakens this ventricle it might cause us to have a transplant sooner rather then later.

So, because of the pace maker, Jack will not suffer a stroke due to a irregular heart beat, which has always been a huge fear for me.  But the pace maker could cause Jack to need a new heart...and after our time here at the hospital, I just don't wish that on anyone!!  I sit day after day while here in his room and walking the halls of the 8th floor, and I see all these kids and adults who are just waiting...waiting on a second chance at life, and it is so depressing and sad.  All of these people deserve that chance...the chance to live without having tubes keep them alive.  I know that Jack is special...and I know that I have to let his heart and his life go and just live each day.  His life is in God's hands! It is just hard to let him go sometimes.  I am a fixer and a planner and I can't do either for Jack.  I am having a hard time dealing with that.

Jack has had a pretty good day.  We played a lot in the play room.  He met a lot of great friends...and loved the train set that they have in the play room.  We also found a trike that Jack just loved riding on around the halls.  I don't think I have seen him smile this much since before surgery.