So close, and yet so far

Late afternoon yesterday, Woody had an "episode", which basically means that he stopped breathing for some unknown reason for a while (maybe a minute, but we can't be sure, since he wasn't attached to any monitors), which freaked out everyone pretty bad. When I showed up an hour or so later, the nurse and the NP were still pretty shaken, so I knew it was kind of a big deal. The going theory as to the cause of the issue has to be something like an infection, so Woody's been put through the paces as far as diagnostics, including a blood test, urine screen, spinal tap, x-rays, and electrolyte analysis. His brief foray off of the monitors, which started on Tuesday after he passed his CR scan, is now over. In fact, when he is released he'll be sent home on home monitors, so we will know if he stops breathing.

But, perhaps needless to say, his Friday discharge is now off the table. Should he need a 7 or 10 day course of intravenous antibiotics, he will be in for at least that long. If he doesn't, he'll still be in until early next week. Maggie and I are pretty bummed about this, although I'm a bit in the angry and resentful stage of dealing with it: it just seems profoundly unfair that we still can't get Woody out of the hospital after over four months of being in there, when the Ungratefuls can just pop out a healthy baby after smoking and drinking for nine months.*

In a lot of ways I feel kind of like a baseball team that almost makes the Series, getting within a couple of outs of winning the game, and then the ace closer blows the lead in the ninth. We were doing so well! It looked like we were getting out! And here we are again, still not sure when we're getting out or what the plan was. It sucks.

Woody is, overall, going to be fine; he has no brain damage from the episode or whatever, but he's acting a little lethargic and out of it, and so he's obviously fighting something off. I'll keep you posted as to any further plans.

*Standard disclaimer about how I know that all of you parents out here are totally grateful. I'm talking about the people that beat their kids and scream at them in the grocery store aisles. You know who I mean.