And He.. Was... RUNNIN'!!!

Well, folks, Henry has been here 25 days (a month's time ZOOMS in our world) and today he just looked GREAT!!! I stripped him down naked to give him a bath, and when i say naked, i mean NOTHIN' except his G-Tube button on his belly! I scrubbed him down good, got all the various sticky residues off his various limbs, redressed his belly incision and put a little split-gauze around his G-Tube site and then I bundled him up and quite literally twirled around with him in the open space of the room just because I COULD!

Then i took him in the room's private bathroom to show him himself in the mirror, like we've done with all our kids at bath time (goofy tradition). We say, "Who's that baby in the mirror?? That's YOUUU!!!!" and then point and make a gigantic to-do over it. Henry just smooshed his face up to say, "Eh... who cares.. I'm gettin' cold, woman." When i laid him down on the bed to pick out his next onesie (went with the silver electric guitar that Auntie Natalie got Sam, which all the boys have worn, Henry the longest because he's staying the smallest longer!), his entire body was kickin' and flailin' like he was running a marathon while laying on his back! It was the cutest, BEST thing i've seen from him since I returned to CHOP. I got in real close and said, "Are you runnin' a marathon, buddy?" and then guess what he did?.......

...... HE SMILED THE BIGGEST SMILE!!! - - as if to say "Yup, Mom... i AM runnin'... and I'm not gonna stop til we get the !@#$% outta here!" I started giggling as i got more and more smiles! Finally! The day i've been waiting for (again) since my return. You know Henry is feeling better when he smiles; it's just obvious.

When i asked the nurses about Henry's IV finally coming off his foot (he's been done with his IV antibiotics for over a day now), they said, "Oh... Henry did that!" Apparently his feet helped kick the board that's taped to his foot to make it stay in position. It didn't sound like he kicked the actual IV out, but he "helped" them get the show on the road about that. Smart cookie!!!

Henry's nissen incision is no longer as red and swollen and is not even really seeping any more. It's pink, and there are two spots that are draining a little, but nothing alarming or looking infected. And his G-Tube site is not leaking as much, which means it's closing up more and healing around the tube. We've been rubbing Desitin around that area to promote healing (just like a diaper rash) and that seems to be working well. He is finally back up to full feeds (it's taken WEEKS) and they are upping his calories slowly through today and tomorrow. By Wednesday/Thursday-ish, we are going to try and get him back on bolus feeds. A bolus feed (do you remember?...) means that he gets fed a certain amount in one sitting vs. a continuous pump of feed spread over the course of the entire day. We're hoping to go back to every three hours and then the continuous overnight feed, which works great for all of us, as well as Hank's nissen.

Henry's chest incision is even starting to fade, as anticipated. That surgery was 3 months ago. Wow.

So today is a GOOD DAY! I hope to report nothing but the same in posts to come!