Homeward bound?

There's no sweeter word in the hospital than "discharge", and today there are serious discussions that Grace could be going home as soon as tomorrow!

It's scary and exciting all at once.  She's now off of all IV medicines (and for the first time in almost two weeks, is needle free!) and on her oral medicine regimen, so they are watching her to make sure she's stable.   They're also watching her weight gain to be sure she is gaining but not so much that she's getting a fluid buildup again.  The doctor who's been in charge of her the last 3 days is terrific, and she would like to see Grace pack on a whole 30 grams a day.  That's beefing up when you're only 10 pounds to begin with, or 4 and a half kilos, in hospital terms.

We're still not sure where our next "step down" will be - whether home or at Gram and Greenpa's.  It all depends who still has electricity, after Hurricane Irene blew through last night.   While we were busy battening down the hatches, Grace was busy throwing food down her hatch. 

We have our medication schedule graph all drawn up to make sure she gets all nine doses each day, which doesn't include her eye drops and ointment for her battle-scarred skin.  We're hopeful that this decreases as her body continues to adjust to her newly formed ticker.

It's crazy to think we're talking about hours and not days before we get out of here, but we know it's the next step in healing, with brighter days ahead in Graceland.