There's no place like home.

Well, we're finally home. We got home this afternoon from the hospital and I'm extremely happy. Jack was saying all the way home that he was happy to be going home and seeing dad and Caroline, although within 5 minutes of getting home they were at each other's throats. Here are some observations I made during the four days at the hospital:

*Children's hospitals are pretty cool. They had a playroom for the little kids and a Teen Room for the older kids. I got Jack to do his make-up work by challenging him to a game of pool. After each game we'd do a subject. It was great!

*The Wii kept Jack's mind off of the fact that he was at a hospital and couldn't do a lot of what he wanted.

*The nurses at Children's hospitals are great. They explained EXACTLY what they were doing and what to expect (even the surgeons and anesthesiologists). It put Jack's mind at ease for a little bit. He always fluctuated between complete panic and calmness, but mostly calmness.

*Considering the infection could've been worse, Jack was low man on the totem pole in terms of sickness. We were walking down the hallway one day on one of our walks and we saw a little girl (maybe 1 1/2) walking down the hallway holding on to her dad's hand and mom pushing the IV pole down the hall. Jack had been complaining that his IV port hurt, but didn't complain at all after that when he saw that hers was in her leg so she wouldn't pull it out.

*There was a baby in the room next to us who was having to do breathing treatments a lot. The poor thing was miserable. You'd hear it cry (that really little bitty baby cry) and then cough congestedly. So at 10 p.m. it was WAAWAAWAAA cough cough cough. REALLY PISSED WAAAWAAAAWAAA cough cough cough. It was so pitiful.

*There was only ONE nurse he would let change the dressing. It was the night nurse who was on duty the first night we were there. He wouldn't let anyone else look at the drain tubes or anything else (except the doctors). Only Nurse Lori. He didn't take a shower last night until Lori came on duty.

*He's more okay with hospitals now than he was before. Not that he wants to go back, but it is not as scary.

*I have something to hang over his head when he balks about doing his work. Because he was out for four days he's behind. If he gives me any flak about doing the work, I'll put him in tutoring and Saturday school to catch him up.