We are out!

So when they told us we were free to go, we were so excited we forgot to blog about it, and this post has been a couple of days in the making. They let us go late Saturday. We had a potpourri of free-roaming doctors, nurses, physician's assistants, x-ray technicians, and the like poking and prodding him for the entire day, but luckily, no blood draws. The poor little guy was fed up with health care professionals. Everyone at the Mayo works as one big team so this would explain why we had so many people in and out, but it sure makes it hard to keep track of who everyone is. Here are a couple of the cardiologists who would frequent the room.

An interesting thing about the doctors here is the fact that when they are not in their scrubs or white coats, they are fully dressed in suits. Highly impressive.

Of course, many new pills were added to Ashton's pill regimen. Due to the fact that he was getting a bit irritated about all of the unwanted attention, he stated that he would not be taking any more medication. He had one more to take for the day, but he claimed everyone was trying to give him dog pills, and he would never take dog pills. Here is what a "dog pill" looks like:

We realized that in a strange way, we would miss the hospital. We wouldn't necessarily miss the sounds of medical machinery making noises all night, the terribly uncomfortable cots that will make end up making a chiropractor independently wealthy, or the carts rumbling by every ten or fifteen minutes while we were trying to sleep, but we will miss watching the reflection of the Mayo-One helicopter take off and return, the top-notch care our boy received, and the Minnesota accent held by all of the nurses (which is something that should be federally mandated, in my opinion, for all nurses; it serves to be both reassuring and soothing).

After being released, we made the trek up two unbelievably long blocks to the Ronald McDonald house. Mom and dad had been frequenting the place to take showers, but Ashton was enthralled by all that is available for kids to do. There is an incredible play room for the kids, as well as regularly scheduled activities; If Ashton had been out earlier on Saturday he could have joined everyone on a trip back to Minneapolis to see a Twins game. Here are some pictures of Ashton in the playroom. We found out he is quite a pinball wizard.

As you can see, he is feeling much better. It will be a major chore keeping him down while he heals up this summer. Anyone have Duct Tape?

Staying at the Ronald McDonald house is quite an experience. There are people here presently from six different countries. We see nuns here, as well as the Amish. We are surrounded by people so different from what we are used to, but we are all connected. There is a great feeling of family and togetherness as we are all drawn together by the trials we are all facing in different ways through our young family members. Everyone is responsible for keeping up the house. There are no chore lists, but everyone busies themselves with their share. This experience serves to remind us daily that our lives our forever changed by our trials. You have choices in how you deal with what comes your way. It can either build you up, or crush you down. This is building us up, all right.