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Well today has been like a roller coaster. And not one of the good ones that you want to ride over and over...but one that you NEVER want to ride again. Ever. Our day started out fabulous with wonderful reports from the surgical team. All his blood work looked good, his creatanine was continuing to drop, his urine was a nice color of yellow, the doctor removed his foley this morning, and his central line very soon after that. He got to take a shower!!! A real shower! He was feeling mighty fine. The word discharge had already been thrown around and he was sitting pretty. 

Then the big drop...he couldn't pee. At least not enough. He had to pee three times followed by a bladder scan to measure how much urine was left in his bladder. The acceptable number is 100 mL. The first time he went Nurse Debbie measured 173mL. Ok, not too bad. The second time he peed 500 mL and we expected his bladder to be empty. It showed 123 mL. Also, not a bad reading and coming down. The third time he went and the scan was done his number was up to the 200's. Then into the 400's and the 300's. By 4:00 pm Anthony was sure he was going to be stuck in the hospital again. He faded very quickly and began another pity party. He didn't want to eat, didn't want to drink, didn't want to talk. He just wanted to pout, he was so disappointed. Debbie was fabulous and gave us enough information to know what was going on, and encouragement to keep our heads up. She tried paging the doctor several times but no answer or call back. At 6 Anthony tried to get me to come home to the babies. He was sure he was spending another night in Winston. The docs were on shift change and his numbers for his bladder scan were way too high. Even Debbie was resigned to the fact that she thought he was going to need to spend another night there, probably having another catheter of some kind to empty his bladder.

And then.....he peed. 500 mL. It made Debbie happy and she called the docs back to report that his numbers looked good, his output was voluminous, and the color was appropriate. She got the discharge papers ready. Earlier today she went over his meds with me and we put them into his pill container. I'll take a picture of that beautiful thing tomorrow. We were set. Finally, around 6:30pm, good and wonderful news. The doctor on call agreed with Debbie and we were released!! Hooray!!! Within 15 minutes he was wheeled to the parking lot and deposited into my car!

Phew...get me off this ride! I'm ready for a break. I have a feeling that's not going to happen. For quite some time. The babies finally got to see him tonight for the first time in nearly a week...oh how sweet they were. Lincoln is very astute and knows just what was happening and that daddy was getting a new "part." He demanded to see his boo-boo tonight. I told Anthony he might as well. It's not scary or gross and Lincoln sincerely wants to know what's going on. He's also been asking about Amy. Last night when I talked to him on the phone he wanted to know how she was doing, where she was, and how her "part" was. Was she resting? Did she feel OK? Could he see her? That precious boy...God sure has something fabulous in store for him. Great things.

We shall see how the next few days go. I'm assuming Anthony is going to be overly tired and want to rest. He's not allowed to lift more than 10 pounds so he can't really help with the kids, or at least he can't pick them up or change Aspen's diaper, or put her to bed. Lincoln wants to be very close and Aspen is saying nothing but "Daddy!" I think they're going to have to spend lots of time at Grammy and Nana's house as Anthony gets his strength back so he will be able to rest, and I will too.