Happy Discharge

 Today is our wedding anniversary.  Jeff and I were sealed in the Manti Temple 12 years ago today.  Best decision I ever made.  Probably the hardest decision I ever made.  I have been grateful every day since.

Cliche as it may sound, Jeff is my very best friend.  I would rather hang out with him than anyone else.

 And seriously, though, he is Big Sexy (a nickname he earned at work...)

 Jeff and I talk about what a great team we make, and how lucky we are to have what we do in our marriage.

 With all that we have to deal with in this life, I am so thankful that my marriage is a source of strength and refuge, rather than a source of contention and stress.  Not that it's all roses all the time (I think Jeff has sent my flowers like twice, and that counts when we were dating,) we definitely have disagreements, but we respect each other and we love each other.

 Jeff is a live-in example of the person I want to become.  He is truly one of the most patient humans I have ever encountered.  He is humble and quick to forgive.  One of Jeff's gifts of the Spirit is empathy.  He has this amazing capacity to put himself in someone else's shoes and really feel what they are experiencing.  And let me just say, that quality in a marriage partner pretty much rocks.

We believe that that one of the things that makes our marriage strong is that we take time for each other.  We try to celebrate our anniversary rather than letting it slip by as just another day.  We have found that little weekend getaways bring us closer together.  Back in October Jeff announced that he was planning our anniversary this year and that I needed to be available and not plan anything.  Well, plans changed and I am at Primary Children's with Isaac today.

The GREAT news is...they just told us we will be discharged today!

After having to fast all day yesterday for his surgery, all Isaac wanted to do was eat when it was over.  We ordered some food as soon as we got back to the room, but he was too exhausted to eat.  He slept while his corndog got soggy and his chocolate milk got warm.  When he woke up we got him some fresh food and he felt much better after eating.

Surgery was not successful.  Once they got into the infected space, they found that it was not an abscess of infected fluid, but an infected blood clot in his lung.  They could not get it to drain, and it was too dangerous to try to remove it surgically, so they left it there.  One of the doctors told me, "My colleagues and I have never seen a blood clot like this as a result of pneumonia with pleural empyema."

 When his fevers spiked again, his heart rate was through the roof.  Since he had just come out of surgery, they took extra precautions and had an EKG done to make sure his heart was alright.

 Thankfully his heart calmed down when his fever broke, so we did some lung exercises and blew bubbles.

 This morning when we woke up, Isaac announced that it was time for "morning jobs."  Off we went to the bathroom to brush teeth, comb hair, and change hospital gowns.

When we got him back in bed (we decided to skip 'make bed' on the Morning Jobs list) Isaac hooked  himself back up to all the monitors.

Initially the doctors indicated that Isaac would need to remain on IV antibiotics through tonight and than transition to oral antibiotics tomorrow,  If he tolerated those then we could be discharged tomorrow night or Monday.  He didn't fever through the night, however, and so this morning they said that we would be going home today.  Best news ever!

As hard as it is to be here, going home is hard too.  Home still does't really feel like home.  We have to be very careful with Isaac.  We can't go and do all the things we are used to doing.  Since Isaac's condition is not something they see often - as in "never" - we just have to take one day at a time.  When I asked if there were any special instructions, the doctor looked me in the eye and instructed, "Do not let him get a cold."

Helping the other children cope with all of the change and difficulty requires a lot of patience and attention.  They have to miss out on a lot of things because we are busy taking Isaac to appointments.  Levi hasn't been to one wrestling tournament this season.  I tried to go watch Daisy compete in the Geography Bee at the school earlier this week, but it was a hopeful mistake.  Isaac simply can't go to things like that.  We had to leave in an early interruption.  Transitioning to this new normal will take time and patience for all of us, and we will continue to rely on the support of all of the friends and family around us.

We will return to Primary Children's next week for followups.  For now, we are looking forward to going home.