Home Sweet Home

Wow! It's SO nice to be home, to have ALL our family together. Even though we've done hospital stays several times over the last 4 1/2 years, it never gets easier and it's always hard to divide our time between being home with Kelsey and Connor, working, and being at the hospital with Parker. But, somehow we did it again, and he's home now!

Parker dressed and ready to go home!

Parker is doing great. He's not fully recovered yet, but he's getting better every day. He is still requiring oxygen and will most likely be on oxygen for a little while. That has been an adjustment--it's been a few years since we've dealt with oxygen around the house. Parker is so happy to be home (although he did admit to missing the grilled cheese sandwiches that he ate almost everyday at the hospital. They had REALLY good cheese, according to Parker)! We plan to keep him home from school as he continues to recover until after Thanksgiving. He really misses school and wants to go back so badly, but he just isn't strong enough yet. We're still trying to decide if sending him to school is worth it--we can't have him missing a month of school and a 2 week stay in the hospital every time he catches something at school. But on the other hand, we want him to have the school experience just like our other kids have.

The Child Life Department at the hospital (which is wonderful, by the way) offered us tickets to the opening night of Disney on Ice in Greensboro last night. We weren't sure we if we should take Parker or not, but after a very good and restful day, we decided to. We had a wonderful time together as a family. It was a nice way to end a very stressful and complicated 2 weeks. It was definitely a special treat for our family. Parker did great. We didn't let him walk at all (he rode in the stroller or we carried him everywhere), and of course he kept his oxygen on. He was a little concerned about what people would say about that, but we assured him that it would be fine and that many people have to use oxygen. The show was great and the kids all enjoyed it. It was fun to hear Parker's big belly laugh! It was a late night and we were all exhausted by the time we got home, but it was worth it.