I spent the day with Kyle today, basically enjoying a leisurely Labor Day while Chantale spent it at the Hospital with Charlize.
It felt weird not seeing her, but considering how much time I spent looking at photographs and videos, I can still feel her in my heart so I’m not missing her as much as I probably could 🙂
There has been some news, though. After a very quiet night, she had a bit of a racing pulse this morning for about half an hour (at 160). But then, it all went back to normal. During the day, they slowly stopped giving her two more drugs (the ones she had been taken off of a couple of days ago) in an effort to begin getting her ready to wake up and remove the breathing tube.
This afternoon, they also removed the chest tube from her left side, still leaving the right side in. Those suckers are painful so it’ll be great when she’s finally free of them. With that big event out of the way, we’re simply waiting around for her to slowly come around. The ease and speed at which anyone does this isn’t a given (could be a couple of hours, could be a day) but, again, it’s encouraging to see the progress being made.
Bit by bit more tubes will be coming off and we’ll be able to interact with our baby again. I don’t know how to properly convey the feelings of anxiety and anxiousness with which we await that moment. I know how hard it is and has been for Chantale to be away from Charlize – especially how she’s missing the skin-to-skin contact that comes with breastfeeding. At least she can be at ease while at the hospital knowing that Kyle is not being deprived in any way and having a blast with me 🙂 Taking care of him is also quite helpful and healing for me. Boy do I miss him when he’s away…
So, tomorrow, I get him ready and take him to his guardian’s. Then, I head down to the hospital and spend the day with Chantale and Charlize. Considering my work commitments, etc, Chantale’s parents will be picking Kyle up tomorrow night and he will be staying with them for a few nights. It’s only been four days since the surgery, and yet it feels BOTH longer and shorter than it is. Kind of hard to think of anything else, really…