Post Op Day 7 - Chest tubes out and a few pics

After the unavoidable chest x ray this morning Landon went down to the 3rd floor to get his chest tubes removed (YAY!).  They used a small amount of anesthesia to knock him  out but not enough that he needed the respirator.  They also put in an IV while he was out - they don't need it for anything right now but better for him to get it while he's out instead of while he's awake just in case it is needed later.  We aren't thrilled about it but knowing what a tough stick he can be, it's the lesser of two evils.

We asked the surgeon about the test that came back "iffy" yesterday and he's not concerned about it right now and it definitely wasn't a reason to postpone removing chest tubes.  His x rays looked good this morning so that was a good final check to make sure we were good to go.  With anesthesia he wasn't allowed to eat anything several hours before or drink anything a few hours before so he was hungry and thirsty by the time we got down there.

 So with his chest tubes out our next step is to continue to monitor his chest xrays closely to make sure he doesn't have any additional fluid that needs to be addressed.  It is a possibility they could have to put the chest tubes back in (as I'm sure it always is) so we will hope and pray the we can manage the fluid with medication and moving around a lot to help his body reabsorb any additional fluid.  The next few days will be very telling in whether we will be able to move forward (and go home!) or have to step back a little bit.  We're excited that going home could be soon but not counting down the days just yet since we know how quickly things can change.  

With his chest tubes out it will be much easier to get him in and out of bed so we can hold him a little bit more and get him up to walk some more. 

Sitting up tuesday

Playing with trucks Tuesday (moving so fast it's a blurry pic - signs that he's getting back to his old self).

Sitting with Daddy Wednesday after getting chest tubes out (gauze where the 3 tubes once were)