Sunday, February 8, 2004 10:08 AM CST

Aidan is Home, the Sequel!

Aidan, his mom and dad, and his baby brother Paddy, arrived home about 10:30 last night. So far, so good. I (Willa) am holding my breath, but Aidan acts good, his incision still looks great, and he is still showing no neurological signs 10 days after his shunt removal. Aidan is presently watching his brothers play Mario Kart on the game cube while his G Tube feeding runs in. Aidan has to be on 800 extra cc's of water (a quart is 1000 cc's) plus the normal 1600 cc's of his formula feedings. Over half a gallon a day -- he may just melt!

Once again, Aidan overheard the doctor telling us we could leave and started asking to get in his stroller. It was another 5 hours before we actually got discharged and out the door. He was pretty wiped out by the time we got to Shaver Lake but still bright eyed. His new word is "Mm-HMM!" said with great emphasis, as in "Aidan, do you want to go home and see Liam?" "Mm-HMMM!" "See Clare?" "Mm-HMM!" and so on through the rest of the siblings.

We have follow up labs at our home hospital this Monday and follow up neurosurg clinic the next Monday at SF, plus various follow up tests and clinics at the home hospital in the next few weeks. Life will still be quite medical and homeschooling has come to a semi-standstill during all this. We have an 8yo who is preparing for First Communion this year and a 15yo who is preparing for Confirmation. And a 17yo who is preparing to graduate from high school. Kevin needs to catch up on his work as a freelance computer game programmer which has also come to a semi-standstill. There's a lot of catching up to do!

So many of you have been such a support through all this. It has meant a lot. We have felt such encouragement from our family and friends, our local community, and our wider-ranging community of homeschooling and hospital friends. Plus of course the garage-game programmer community and CLASSkids!

We have been praying for all of you who are interceding for us. Please keep a little baby we met in the hospital in your prayers. He had a recent liver transplant which failed and is now listed for a second transplant. He and his family have been through a lot.

More later, but hopefully our life will get boring again now and the updates won't need to be as frequent,