Howard Family Blog: WE ARE HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday was a very busy day. First thing in the morning at about 7, Garets nurse came in with his first set of meds for the day. Since we were planning on going home she was explaining everything about each med and if there were any other meds that had to be taken first and things like that. The doctors made there rounds and the main transplant nurse came in and told me that she has send all of his prescriptions down to the pharmacy in the hospital so we could make sure they had everything we needed to go home. Those were ready to be picked up right around 11. During the time that we were waiting , we got the room all packed up. It is amazing how much stuff you can accumulate in 4 weeks. It does not seem like that much when you are bringing it up one grocery bag at a time. But you sure find out how much stuff it is when you have to take it all down to the car. Thank goodness we had already gone over to the Ronald McDonald house the night before and got most of the stuff over there all packed. Matt took a full car load home Monday night when we went home. When I got back from picking up Garets meds his nurse was taking out his last pick line in his arm. Our baby is now fully wireless. The nurse went over all the meds and made sure we had everything that we needed before we could sign the discharge paper and go home. About 1:30 we were walking our of the hospital and getting into our car.

Once we got home it was time to eat and take some medicine. As soon as Garet ate he took a little nap. It was perfect timing since we had so much stuff that had to be put away. It was very nice to be home and have a home cooked meal. Our day ended with Garet going to sleep in his own bed and we were able to do the same. We will still be visiting Gainesville each week for a while. Every Thursday we have a clinic visit with the Cardiologist. Garets heart is still not working the way it should but he is stable on his meds and we just have to make sure that we keep the doses increasing as he grows. Right now it is up to God and Garet as to what will happen next. Our hope is that he continues to get stronger and stay stable.Hopefully we can improve this problem with medicine. He is still on the transplant list and that may still be a factor as time goes on. The longer he is on the list the better his chances are if he does need to get a heart. For now we just have to try to prevent any other kind of sickness. Cold and Flues will effect him so much worse than it would with a healthy baby. Now that we are home we would love for you all to come and visit. When you do come to visit please help us help Garet. Hand washing for anyone that comes around and constant sanitizing of everything around the house is so important. It is now our job to make sure that we stay as healthy as possible. In doing this we can keep him healthy as well so that his heart can get stronger. In the next week or so we will be taking a infant CPR coarse in Jacksonville. If anyone is interested in taking it with us to get there certification we would love for you to join us. I am not sure what day it will be on but I will keep you all posted or you can email me with the information.