A good night's sleep for everyone

When we got home yesterday, Riley slept for about 3¹/₂ hours. Then he slept straight through the night from 8pm to almost 5am. He was very pleased to be in his own bed without the endless sounds of bells and whistles and nurses. Mom, Dad and Grampy also had a good night sleep.

Riley is playing normally, and seems to move around as much as he did before the surgery. We are hoping that he will have even more energy as he heals. Before the surgery, Riley would get tired and sweaty if he stood with assistance. His oxygen saturation levels have gone from the low 60s to the high 70s which should give him more energy as he learns to stand and ultimately walk.

His medication routine is more complicated than before. Previously he got 0.5mL of lasix once/day, 20mg of baby aspirin and 2.5mL of amoxocillin twice/day. Now he gets 1.5mL lasix twice/day (6X before), 40mg baby aspirin (2X before), 6.25mg captopril thrice/day and the 2.5mL of amoxocillin twice/day. The captopril is given to keep his blood pressure in check.

Riley will see his cardiologist next week, at which time he'll have a follow-up chest x-ray and an echocardiogram. The final echo he received at UCSF showed some fluid around the heart, so they will look at that closely to make sure it is not expanding.