Home Time!

After 12 days of doctors, nurses, poking, prodding, needles, antibiotics, and countless samples of blood, snot, skin, wee and poo taken from Sean, we were finally allowed to go home.

It felt like today would never come, and even as the morning dawned and Jonathan arrived, it still didn't feel like we were ever going to be allowed to go home.

We only had one task for the day - and that was to take Sean home. We waited for various people to come and do their things - Sean needed another cannula so he could have another IVIg infusion, and Dr Gray still needed to give us a few things before we could go home.

Not a lot happened over the weekend. Dr Gray paid us a visit on both days, which made us feel quite special. Our gorgeous nurse Amy didn't work weekends, but we had some lovely nurses looking after us. We were so very lucky to get Amy for much of our stay, as we felt the continuity of care was very important for Sean. With us in such good hands, Jonathan felt confident about going back to work, which he did yesterday.

Throughout our stay in hospital, we have had various visitors drop in to check on us. Our darling friends Penny and Lissy came by early in the piece, and my parents dropped by on a regular basis. one of the mothers from Mothers Group, Daisy works as a pharmacy in the Prince of Wales Hospital, right next door to the Sydney Children's Hospital, and she came by the room on the days she worked to bring us food - we enjoyed some really delicious muffins and pastries and gourmet toasts. Our dear friends Charmaine and Sam drove all the way from Carlingford to The Rocks to bring us the best pancakes in the world from Pancakes On The Rocks, on the day that the Sydney Harbour Bridge was closed for resurfacing. We truly are so so so blessed to have such loving people in our lives.

Family and friends who weren't able to visit had also keep in touch through email, text messages and WhatsApp. We were getting so much love from everywhere.

Looking back on our stay, it was amazing the number of medical professionals who were involved in Sean's diagnosis. It all started with Margot, the paediatric nurse who spotted Sean's laboured breathing. Then there was Dr Allen who sent us to hospital. While there, we got to meet doctors and specialists in the fields of Respiratory, Haematology / Oncology, Dermatology and Immunology. We met a whole host of Blood Sisters, a few Radiographers, a Sonographer for the Echocardiogram, a Dietician, a Speech Pathologist, and we even met with a Surgeon briefly when there was talk of removing one of Sean's lymph nodes. Then there were Ward Doctors as well, one of whom was an absolute idiot who was adamant that Sean had cystic fibrosis. (As an aside, CF almost doesn't exist amongst the Asian population, and neither of our families had any history of CF, so it would have been an absolute medical miracle for Sean to have CF.) And we would never have coped without the wonderful nursing staff. So many times, the nursing staff found me in tears, at all hours of the day, and offered comforting words and hugs and wiped away the tears.

Just before 5pm, we were given the all clear to leave the hospital. Prue, the Nursing Unit Manager came around and had a chat with us before we left the hospital, and we thanked her over and over again for the wonderful care we received from her staff. We had given our special nurse Amy a small personal thank you gift earlier in the day, and hope that when the time comes for life saving treatment, Sean will be nursed by Amy again.

It was wonderful to see our car - it was the first time Sean and I had seen or been in that car for 12 days. We strapped the little man into his seat and he laughed and giggled and babbled the whole way home.

Home. It was lovely to be home. To be home as a family. Family cuddles in our bed. Bliss.

It feels so good to be home. Sean is in his bed for the first time in nearly 2 weeks and sound asleep. Jonathan and I are looking forward to being in the same bed tonight. We've missed each other so much.

Tomorrow, we are on our own. We'll have to be vigilant about a lot of things, and watch Sean's health like hawks. It won't be easy, but together, we can face anything.