A Day at the Hospital

We spent the day in room 445 playing with the buttons on the bed, playing fruit dominoes and old crocodile, watching Dora the Explorer on Nick, playing Purple Place computer games of matching and cake baking, and watching the Land Before Time dinosaur movie, "Littletoot"...aka "Littlefoot", movies from home, and movies from the hospital. It's very difficult to keep someone as active as Aaron hooked to a coat rack and a pulse ox machine. We did the best we could to get some rest (the nurses let Aaron sleep peacefully from 1:30 to 4:00)...and drink plenty of fluids.
Aaron is still very dehydrated. He woke this morning dry, and hadn't gone to the bathroom since his illness at the clinic. They continue to drip fluids, and he finally managed to go peeps later in the morning. He doesn't really think it is necessary to pee into the measuring cup, but his type A mom is keeping track of all his inputs and outputs on his white board.
He is not thrilled about the tubes connected to his left hand. He is most content if we hide his hand under the covers, so he can't see it. Out of sight...out of mind. Yesterday afternoon while we were snuggling together on the bed playing Old Crocodile he turned to me and asked, "What are they going to do to me?"
"Nothing, honey, now we just have to wait until you get better." "AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...it's too long waiting. I just want to go home."

Aside from that little outburst, Aaron has been the model patient. He's impressed every doctor and nurse that opens our door. I asked the rounding pediatrician this afternoon if we could go home...since Aaron's stats are looking great. She reinforced that he has a very serious pneumonia, more serious (based on his chest x-rays) than the majority of cases she treats in the hospital.

However, tonight Dr. Showers, his admitting pediatrician, said we could prepare for home, if that is what we wanted. She has dumped buckets of water on the smouldering ashes of his illness in the hopes of finally extinguishing Aaron's pneumonia. They administered another round of IV antibiotics and fluids and we drove in the driveway around 11pm. Aaron was relieved to be home. After showering and brushing teeth, he was snuggling between Adam and I in the big bed. Within 5 minutes of falling asleep he was awake, coughing and vomiting. He lay for the rest of the night propped up in my arms, which seems to help alleviate the coughing fits. His breathing is still shallow and rattly. I'm terrified that I made the wrong call by bringing him home. He is still very sick...and we are going to have to pretend we are still at the hospital if he is going to clear this illness.