Fontan +4

This morning Elijah woke up in a good mood, ate a whole bowl of a Fruit Loops, went for a walk and then wanted to sit on the couch in his room with Daddy instead of get back in bed. He was sitting there playing memory when the doctor came for his rounds. After taking a look at Elijah and checking his vitals manually because he was off the monitors, he said it looked like Elijah was done with the ICU.

During the course of the day they removed the last chest tube, turned off the oxygen, stopped the milrinone drip, did a chest X-ray, a sonogram, and an echo, and then called for a room upstairs on the regular pedi floor. Elijah was awake and playing games, walking laps, eating, using the toilet and watching movies all day. He took a short nap just before dinner, when they gave us the final word that we were being kicked out of the Congenital Heart Surgical Unit (ICU), and we packed Elijah's five bags of clothes, toys, snacks and gifts.

After dinner it took an hour to get Elijah to take his chewable Tylenol and the potassium crushed and mixed with a Popsicle, but he did it and got really excited about taking a ride in the wagon to a new room on the children's floor where the play room is a short walk away.

He rode around to say goodbye to one of his favorite night nurses, Mr. Joe, and then we headed out and got settled into a new room.

We have a few more boxes to check before Elijah will be cleared to go home. He needs to maintain a high enough oxygen level on his own, especially over night. His blood work needs to come back with higher levels of potassium and calcium. He needs to transition to taking all meds by mouth. The little bit of fluid they saw on the X-ray and sonogram today needs to clear up. Walking and the diuretics he's taking should help with that.

This little man is doing so well. We are so proud of him and so grateful for all of you.