home from the hospital!

pictures telling the story ... we have no pics from sunday (where we spent most of the day in the ER) because Nana was not there yet. so these pictures start at our second day in the hospital ... MONDAY:

early monday am with our 3rd nurse. ms. virginia. kind of quirky. our favorite nurse was our night nurse ms. lauren because she was as quiet as a mouse and reworked ezra's vitals so that we could sleep more. he was exhausted sunday night from a full day @ the hospital where they were checking/poking/injecting/etc every 20 mins or so. you can also see that he is still slightly traumatized by nurses from the frightened look in his eyes - this is after his traumatic 1 1/2 hours of IV attempts - 3 nurses - 4 locations on his little arms. HORRIBLE.

PRAISE #1 - ezra's eeg was moved from 1pm monday afternoon (which we know would have been more like 3 on hospital time) to 9:10am!!! the eeg was in his room, which he was more comfortable in, so that was also a praise. the tech came around 9:45. PRAISE #2: our brave little boy. just minutes after this shot was taken, he asked "noise off" (he was watching thomas the choo choo on the TV overhead to distract him), "mommy, blankie," "mommy, twinkle" and with that, he spread his arms open wide like Jesus on the cross, and he drifted off to sleep with mommy & daddy singing to him "twinkle, twinkle little star." the eeg tech said she had never seen anything like it and that most children she takes care of scream through the whole thing. ezra slept while she placed the next 30 or so leads on his head. it was a DEEP sleep. he was just exhausted. when he fell asleep, i looked up at the clock and it was about 10:00am. that is when our hall director staff meeting starts. and my boss meghan said they prayed for us almost 40 minutes - prayer LITERALLY carried ezra through the whole procedure. it was a true miracle. we had been so anxious about how he would respond to this.

true to his name - "helpful, strong one." who at age two takes an eeg literally "lying down"?!? the tech here is still placing leads on his head. she used cotton balls in his hair instead of tape since he was already passed out and was doing so well.
this is sort of what he looked through the 1-hour long procedure. they also flashed strobe lights at him and such to invoke irregular brain activity.we had to wake him - which i hated to doing - for the last part of the eeg. but that only lasted 5 mins. he was not a happy camper then and started crying really hard and crawled up into my lap. he lay there the rest of the procedure while she removed all the leads from his hair and untaped the 5 or so off his face. HE SLEPT THROUGH THE WHOLE THING! we didn't wash his hair or anything. we just put him straight to bed.

post-eeg ezra with crazy eeg hair from gel. the longest he had gotten to sleep since arriving at the hospital. also, note "tuck," the newest horsie addition to our family. "tuck" is short for kentucky, thanks, sarah. :) or maybe i should say dub. :)
PRAISE #3 - after the post-eeg nap, ezra was HUNGRY! yay! trying to eat with an IV hand with Nana's help - somewhat challenging/frustrating because he is used to eating with a utensil in his right hand and "cheating" with his left hand to help food onto to his spoon or fork, but his leftie was all tied up.
after lunch, they wheeled us off for his cat scan. because ezra was neutropenic (sp?), he had to wear a mask while they wheeled us through the hospital. nana and i talked up the CT like we were going through a tunnel like thomas. i "rode" with him which basically meant is was hunched over him so i could go through the tunnel, too, keep his body still and keep him calm. nana was on the other side of the tunnel feeding him starbusts every time he came to her side through the big hole. it was a sheer genius mother-daughter team's approach to tackling a CT of a 2-year-old's brain. the CT techs asked if they could patent our method. :) PRAISE #4 - ezra never made a wimper! we were SOO proud of him!finally, after a VERY full day of big tests, we could go back to the room and crash around 4:00. daddy had spent the afternoon at home resting since nana was there to be with us - we were SO grateful!!!

happy with nana! after his late afternoon nap, we could tell ezra was already feeling better.

ezra REALLY perked up when the nurse finally came and disconnected him from the IV leash. no more fluids or IV antibiotics needed. YAY! one of the first things he did was climb up in the hospital window and talk about the birdies and the trucks and cars passing by on the freeway.

next we pulled the sheet off the bed so he could play with thomas on the floor. mawmaw & pawpaw's Christmas present even had to go to the hospital with us! ezra was only TOO delighted!
happy daddy was back from home to be with us.

after preparing to settle in for the night, ms. virginia, our nurse unexpectedly said we could go home a little after 6pm. she didn't have to ask us twice!!! we were ALL so excited. ezra was still neutropenic, so she said we still needed to keep him isolated. but it was safer for him to be at home than to be at the hospital with so many other infectious children. PRAISE #5 - going home earlier than we expected!