It appears that once we got back to Scotia everyday life had us continually postponing writing an update. We kind of left it hanging, huh?

Life back at home has been great. Henry is thrilled to have Wes home to play with, we are happy to not be sleeping in the hospital, and Wes is himself. He’s back to crawling and cruising around, eating up a storm, and is sleeping soundly in his own dark, quiet room. Everyone is happy that he’s back to taking baths and the whole incision area is healing nicely. Boston seems like only yesterday, and ages ago. Both at the same time.

Henry and Wes had a heartwarming reunion on Friday when we got back. Henry had stayed at Andrew’s parents’ house on Thursday night since we didn’t get home until about 9:30pm. Andrew and I blitzed the house Friday morning, getting everything relatively unpacked and put away. Then we went and surprised Henry. The smiles were HUGE on both little faces. The rest of our first weekend back was nice, low-key, and ended with Wes’s first bike ride. He was noncommittal, but I think he’ll grow into it once he realizes that the bike can take him to cool places. Like to get ice cream.

Last Tuesday we saw Dr. Jim, our pediatrician. It was a fun visit, as usual, and reassuring to see him only five days after discharge. Wes had run a low fever from the Friday night after we got back through the following day and night, but it responded to Tylenol, never got very high, and he was acting normally. Still stressful for an obsessing mom, but Dr. Jim confirmed that everything seemed in order. Then Wednesday morning Wes’s first molar showed up. Although there are varying opinions on teething symptoms, for my own sanity molars got the blame for the fever.

Yesterday we saw Dr. Kamenir and it was good to see a familiar cardiology face. Wes had an EKG, and echo, and we had a nice office visit. Everything looks good and we got a drawing showing everything that’s going on in the heart now. It seems like blood flow to the left lung is improving (there will still be a follow-up scan in a couple months) and a small pocket of fluid on the heart hasn’t changed (a good thing). Wes will stay on aspirin for another five months due to the amount of work that was done on the heart, but we can wean down the Lasix over the next weeks so that he’s off it when we re-visit Dr. Kamenir in four weeks. This is exciting because while Wes does fine with the cherry-flavored aspirin, the Lasix is a twice-a-day battle that neither one of us enjoys.

Per Boston’s recommendation, Wes is wearing a Holter monitor for 24 hours to get a more in-depth look at his heart rhythm over the course of a normal day. It started yesterday around lunch time. Andrew’s mom expertly wrapped it against his leg so he hasn’t been bothered by it at all. And the wires are kept under wraps by jumpsuits and sleeper pjs. He’ll be done with it at lunch time today and then we’ll find out if any irregularities were recorded.

For now it’s a gorgeous spring day and Wes and Henry are having a great time at Andrew’s mom’s house.