We're Home!!!

Well, we're home. We got home around 1:00 p.m. this afternoon. Heath really took a crazy turn for the BETTER yesterday afternoon--it was so great. He colored and played cars with Mimi, threw a plane with Kristi, our wonderful physical therapist who happened to be working in the hospital on Sat. The doctors had pretty much told us that they really wanted to see that he would drink (and hopefully eat) on his own and that he didn't spike a crazy fever again. And then we could go home sometime today.



So Heath Tuttle was fired up about going home. He got a little more fired up about eating as I reminded him of the "incentive" gift hiding in the hospital room that EB had picked out with Ama and Grandpa Strow. He ate more food than he had had in several days (sad this is 5 bites of pizza and half a tub of easy mac--god bless those nurses!). He opened his present (see above pic) and said, "IT IS MY FAVORITE. IT'S A SUMMER VACATION!" It was a playmobil camper/rv complete with "mans" and bikes and a tv and soccer ball. hilarious. We are, however, looking forward to a "vacation" from the hospital. :)
Turns out, Heath really did have those 2 common viruses at the same time that got really bad that also seemed to trigger an episode of his gastroparesis (last hospital visit). We've adjusted meds again and will have to go back for a med level check on thursday. Then, we'll probably wait about a month before we do the heart cath that we postponed last week.

It was really nice today for the staff at Duke to see Heath be so much more the hilarious little person that we all know and love. The hospital staff often only get to see the kids at their sickest, and I love for them to see them happy and healthy to see what their amazing work makes possible. He yelled out the door to the main desk, "I ate some mac & cheese, can I go home now??" and then the nurses got on the intercom to the room and said "Heath Tuttle, you are a good, good boy..."
He was sooooooooooo glad to be home--and now he and EB are dancing around the den with shades down, lights off with the laser fingers that came in one of his wonderful gift bags.

We're going to take it easy this week, so those of you around here might not see too much of us. But we feel really good about where we are. Thank you for your love and support.