Chest tubes might come out tomorrow

Here are a few quick updates:

1. Riley is in very good spirits but his eating is still erratic. He ate well for two days but the last two days his intake has been low. Mom had a good conversation with him today and explained that he won't go home until he starts eating. He had a little bit of pizza for dinner, but Carnation Instant Breakfast is our friend.
2. At the playroom this morning one of Riley's chest tubes fell out. Since the stitches came with it, they just taped over it.
3. They're planning to pull the other two chest tubes tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed that drainage continues to be low overnight. They're so confident the doctors have ordered the heparin to be discontinued at 5am. Yippee. If the tubes come out tomorrow we're hopefully on track to go home later this week.
   
4. Riley's PTT (clotting time) continues to fluctuate. A few hours ago it was low so they increased the heparin a bit. At other times it's too high so they stop the heparin for a while.
   
5. Besides transitioning Riley to his home medicine regime, the big open question continues to be how to deal with anti-coagulation and the clot in his leg. Obviously he can't stay on IV heparin. On Friday we heard he'd only be on aspirin but yesterday we were told Riley will need a medication that requires us to give him shots twice a day for several months. Uncool. Apparently they are still consulting with a clotting expert in Canada who supposedly can be reached at 1-800-NO-CLOT (I kid you not). Actually, that's not enough digits, perhaps it's 1-800-NO-CLOTT (the last T is for "Terrific!").
6. At some point during the past week we officially passed 2006's hospitalization record. We've now been in the hospital for 44 days.

Finally, Riley has been approved by the Make-A-Wish Foundation! Riley's cardiologist has already sent them the required medical forms and they'll be sending volunteers to meet with Riley in the next few weeks (probably once we are home). It's pretty exciting and we're already encouraging Riley to start imagining what he'll wish for.