Early reports are that Judah will get to go home today. His white blood count looks good, so he’s passing the tests necessary to be released.

He will be able to go home on an oral antibiotic rather than an i.v., so that means his pic line (the line in his arm) can be removed.

I asked if his last drain bag can be removed, and the request will be conveyed to the doctor. I’m hoping she says yes!

All the hoops to jump through will probably keep us here until after lunch, so I’m settling in for one last relaxing morning here at the hospital.

Update: 11:00 a.m.

Dr. Stanfill came in and gave us our morning report. She said that Judah’s blood test showed a zero white count (I hope I’m repeated that correctly.), which means the infection is all gone. Also he’s eating and drinking enough, so he can go home with oral antibiotics. Both of these bits of information were already told us before.

She said that he is going to go home with his drain, but that in 2-3 days he will come back to Peoria to have the drain removed. We will need to empty his drain bag at home and keep track of its output. We will also need to take his temperature twice a day and make sure he’s doing ok. Dr. Stanfill said that most likely Judah will do just fine until his 6-8 week return date for laparoscopic surgery to remove his appendix. It is an outpatient procedure and very easy to do. (For those of you made of stiffer stuff, you can see a video of the procedure here on this page. Just scroll down to the appendectomy.)

Judah is allowed to eat and act like a normal kid for the next month or two while he waits for his surgery. However, if he should take any sort of an odd turn that concerns us in any way, we are to call the doctor immediately. It is possible for a child to have a relapse of appendicitis. So we will keep a watchful eye on him. If he can make it to the laparoscopic surgery, it will be a very easy procedure and he’ll get to come home that same day. However, if he has a relapse and has to have surgery on an inflamed appendix, it’s much more invasive and the recovery is longer and more difficult.

So now, as we finish this part of our journey, we are looking to the next thing in our lives: moving out of our house. Most likely we’ll move back to our house on Monroe. But maybe God will continue to stir things up in our lives and surprise us with the sale of our house, which will then mean we will have some house shopping to do. Thank you all for walking with us on this journey! You make it so much easier to bear by carrying part of the load with us.

Update: 2:00 p.m.

Michael will be here in a few minutes to take Judah and me home. Judah says he doesn’t want to go home. He wants to stay here where there is a play room. Silly boy!