Mikey came home to his family yesterday afternoon, after exactly 90 days in intensive care. :) He was greeted by his sisters and his Aunt Audra with wide open arms. While we were leaving the hospital, packing up and all, he had a hard time with the car seat, so it took longer to get down to the doors than to drive home. Once he settled into the car, he was calm as could be. He had such an amazing day at home. You can tell he knows he belongs here - he relaxed and had a very very calm day.
We had help on the overnight, so we actually caught a few hours sleep. Of course Shell was up at 4am to check on him, but he was sleeping well. He got a lot more sleep last night than we did! He went from 11pm to about 8:30am without an issue! That's my boy, for sure.
It was nice to have tears of unabashed, unbridled joy for the first time in more than three months.
As we suspected, his sisters couldn't leave his side most of the day, except when Shell busted out Rita's roll-around ice cream maker. :) The ice cream was actually really, really good, too!
All of this brings me to a humble, peaceful thank you to all of you wonderful people out there who have helped bring our son home to us. His Aunts and his Uncles, his grandparents, our dear, dear friends, the folks at SKIP of NY, Erie County, Albany (who moved really, really fast for us) and the nurses at the hospitals that really took a shine to Mikey. We have learned that hospital care and "the system" can really leave people behind, and while we ruffled many feathers in our diligence to bring him home, those people who saw that our efforts were for the right reasons made our lives so much easier. We brought our son home faster than everyone thought possible, and it was the folks that realized we weren't kidding around about getting him out that really pitched in and helped us out.
To all of you that fortunately haven't had to experience long term hospital stays for people you love, please know that while it's not all bad, you have to advocate for your children, your spouse, your friend, your loved one, because they may not be able to. You have to stay the extra hours to see that doctor, spend time during shift change and introduce yourself to the next nurse, etc. It seems that when hospital folks know how loved and looked after their patient is, the better care they provide. I know that we've made a positive impact in Mikey's life and his care by positively showing we're involved, concerned and able to do whatever we needed to do. Most days we had no idea how we'd get the kids watched, supper on the table, medicine given, appointments made - and without the help and love and support from our friends and family wouldn't have been able to do - but we found a way.
On a final note for today - I know many of you have been concerned about me during this time, having both my newborn son and my amazing, beautiful, powerful wife in the hospital. Your love and support have NOT gone unnoticed. Every single one of you helped me fulfill a promise I made to Michelle when I asked her to fight for her very life - that I would bring them both home. As foolish as that promise was in light of the odds we faced, without all of you propping me up and helping me, I would have failed to deliver.
In that, it is truly all of you that have reunited this family of five - a carrot top who can barely walk, with a sippy cup of milk, a little blue eyed blonde with shoes on wrong 'cause she likes to dress herself, a brave little boy with a fishin' cap on and the most beautiful girl, holding all three of them - and made their Daddy feel whole again.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
The struggle isn't over and we're still putting nursing together and finding a way to make it work, but it's easier because of all the love and help we've had.
