Home Sweet Home

....well if you asked me a week ago how I felt about leaving the hospital with Aly, my stomach would have turned.  I was dreading the life we had lived for the past 5 weeks while Aly was on steroids, depressed and wouldn't leave her room.  I feared she would get a fever and we would have to rush her back down to emerg at KGH like we did on July 22rd.  But since the fevers have stopped and each day the steroids appeared to be leaving her system, I was thrilled when one of the nurses finally asked Aly's doctor when we would be discharged.  I was afraid to ask the question.  I was afraid that they would tell me "tomorrow" as much as I feared hearing we would be in for another 3 weeks.  The timing was perfect, I was ready to leave, and after watching an old video of herself playing with Lola (our yellow lab), Aly wanted to go home too.
  On the morning on Friday August 12th I hoped that Aly would sleep in.  Before being discharged she had to be sedated and undergo one more lumbar puncture  ( spinal tap).  The nurses came in early that morning, around 6am to obtain some blood samples from Aly.  This process had become somewhat routine for her, and could normally sleep through the process, but not this morning.  She woke briefly, as she doesn't like to be woken the the site of nurses messing with her port and attempting to obtain blood.  She wined a bit, told them to stop and go away, but as quickly as they entered the room, they were gone.  Luckily she fell back asleep, as did I, only to wake again at 8am to a nurse administering Aly's final dose of antibiotics ( for her apparent blood infection).  She fell back asleep again so I took that opportunity to get myself a coffee.  The LP was planned to begin at 10am, so a nurse quietly came into her room and put some freezing cream on her lower back so that she would not feel the pain of the needle in her lower back.  Aly finally awoke that morning in a fairly pleasant mood, and when the team was ready I carried her to the treatment room where they started to sedate her.
  As difficult as it is to watch your child be sedated, I have such confidence in the the Doctor's and Nurses at KGH that I didn't spend one second worrying about what she was going through - - and as usual, I looked to my sense of humour to distract me from the situation.  There was my 2 1/2 year old laying on a bed, stoned out of her mind.  Her eyes were almost shut as she looked around the room saying " I just want to relax now" .... then asking the resident, with an intoxicated slur " what are you doing with that..." then just as she fell asleep, in a very excited voice, said, " I think I want some pizza....."  I gently kissed her on the forehead, told her I loved her then left the room.  She returned to her hospital room in the arms of the most caring and loving nurse we could ask for .... and Aly was awake but groggy.  The resident that had performed the procedure ( I think) handed her 3 little toys and hung around for a while to continue to chat with Aly.  For those of you reading this that might not know Aly too well, or haven't had the opportunity to have a conversation with her, she has quite the vocabulary and seems to continue to amaze the doctors and nurses that see her.  Not only does she speak well, her ability to comprehend and the sentences that come out of her mouth are fascinating .... its like she is an old sole, and is wise beyond her years.
  After resting for a bit, we happily packed our bags and were picked up by Granny before noon.