Heading home

Though Leah is having a bit of a rough morning, we are going to try to make it back to Hamilton today, which is about four hours away. We aren't sure if Leah is having surgery-related pain or is just being a typical four month old, but she seems especially sleepy and irritable, and is having some stomach and intestine issues...most likely from the pain medication and its side effects. We gave her another dose of Tylenol, but haven't used any more of the oxycodone. I know it's a perfectly safe drug to use for pediatric patients (and in fact Dara, a pharmacist, says that most drug-related visits to the ER for pediatric patients are for Tylenol since parents assume it's totally safe because it's sold over the counter) but I am still interested in using as little oxycodone as possible while still managing Leah's pain. Since she seems to be handling the pain well so far, even when we turned the distractor last night,  we feel comfortable scaling back on the medications.

The drive to Hamilton is daunting to me because I don't know how Leah is going to react. She was in the car seat for about 20 minutes when  we left the hospital, but slept the whole time. This time she will undoubtedly be awake for part of the drive. She is usually fine in the car, but part of that is because she has Emma and John back there with her to sing her songs (John has an especially hilarious rendition of "The Wheels on the Bus" that he does in an Elvis Costello style...) and to entertain her. My fear is that, if she gets upset, she will thrash her head around a bit and will snag the distractor on the fabric and plastic of the seat. We may try to put a hat on her, but if the hat bothers her and causes her to shake her head to get it off, that may make things worse. Since we have no choice, though, and have to get home at some point before my other kids run my parents into the ground, we are going to try, though I have a feeling it is going to be a rough afternoon.