Monday, June 15, 2009

Today was an exciting day at Parkland Memorial Hospital. Clay was discharged!! Something we have all been waiting for for a long, long time....121 days, to be exact :) He had a feeding tube in this morning and while we were feeding him blueberries he complained that he was choking on something. The feeding tube had come out and was wrapped around his tongue. It only took a second to have that thing out! We are glad to say that it is out for good...so far. He had to wait his turn for the bath and that seemed to take forever. He was finally able to go bathe around 12:30 or so. He was SO excited. He scrubbed himself good, dad washed his hair and got his trach cleaned and put back in. After the soap was washed off he was covered in warm towels. He put on a button-down shirt, shorts, socks and shoes. It's the first time he's worn shoes since he's been in the hospital. He was even able to zip his own pants. Quite the determined little boy :) He walked out of that room where they take a bath and headed down the hall to the exit. We had to stop him and tell him he couldn't leave until we had signed papers and got the approval for discharge. He was pretty disappointed at that. It took another 4 hrs until we could finally leave the hospital. Just for the record, quite a few patients were discharged today so it was very busy in the BACU. Before we left, Clay, mom and dad walked over to the BICU and told the nurses and others thanks for the great care and goodbye. While waiting for the final papers to be drawn up, grandma, Aunt Jenae, and the rest of the kiddos hauled the "furniture" from the room (that had been collecting for 4 months) down to the cars. That was a job in itself:) He was finally released around 4:30 p.m. and everyone was cheering as he was wheeled out in the required wheelchair "chariot". When he got to the front of the hospital he said, "Hey, look, there's a bird!" He took a deep breath of the outside air for the first time in a long time and said, "Aaahh". He was loaded in the car and we headed to the Ronald McDonald House. He has been looking forward to coming here because of what his brothers have been telling him. They have been wanting to show him around and were trying to show him all the rooms and exciting things all at once. He got to play air hockey in the game room and after a couple games (he won both) he went to lie down because he was exhausted! He has eaten very well since coming here and we hope it all stays down and he continues to get better. Chance and Carson headed back to Olney tonight. When Chance told Clay goodbye Clay asked where he was going. Chance told him, "I have to go back to work, buddy." Clay said, "Where do you work?" This made dad laugh! He will go in for outpatient therapy everyday this week and will get to go home for the weekend. Thanks and hugs to hugs to everyone in the BICU and BACU! We appreciate you. Thanks to all for standing by us during this time - we are thankful for you all!