They're home!

My last real status update on my brother-in-law and nephew was last Monday (July 17th). A lot has happened since then! 

• Older Nephew's homecoming a week ago Friday (on July 14th)(which I wrote about here) was, unfortunately, short-lived. Last Tuesday morning (July 18th), I was eating my breakfast when his wife called dh, asking if we could drive up there and look after Little Great-Nephew for the day:  she needed to take Older Nephew back to the hospital in downtown Toronto. His bloodwork results were off -- and, somewhat alarmingly, he was seeping fluid from around the stitches of his incision.  :(  
• We literally dropped everything, showered and dressed in record time, left within an hour of her call and made it there before noon. LGN was happy to see us and good as gold as usual.  
• On the other hand, the dog -- a miniature dachshund, whose legs are too short to climb upstairs -- whined long and loud every time I would head upstairs to join LGN & dh -- so I wound up spending a lot of the day with him. Even so, he peed on the couch -- TWICE! -- presumably to show his displeasure at being abandoned, not only by his mom & dad, but also by me!  Poor puppy!  (It's hard to be mad at him!) 
• Older Nephew was readmitted  :(  and then had to wait around for an MRI (which meant not being able to eat anything until it was done). It eventually happened at 10 p.m. that night (!).  His wife returned home around 7:30 p.m., and we left shortly after that. 
• After analyzing the MRI results, the doctors decided to do a (non-surgical) procedure to correct the problem, which took place on Friday morning. Poor Older Nephew couldn't eat for 24 hours after that either! 
• We didn't expect he would be sent home until Sunday or Monday -- but he got the okay to leave on Saturday (today!),  and is now home (again!) -- hopefully for good this time!  :)  
• He will be off work recuperating for at least the next 2-3 months.  
• We made a detour to BIL's house en route home from Older Nephew's house on Tuesday night:  SIL had asked us to check the refrigerator and throw out any food that had spoiled or looked iffy.  Let's just say we threw out a LOT of stuff.  (Clearly, BIL & SIL don't spend a lot of extended time away from home...!  -- dh is meticulous in ensuring we use up stuff before we head off on a trip that's going to last more than a few days, and we usually leave the refrigerator & freezer compartment nearly empty.)  We finally got home around 9:30 p.m. 
• The next morning (Wednesday), we got up early and headed downtown to visit BIL & Older Nephew. It was BIL's 61st birthday. We'd seen him just two days earlier and we were shocked -- and delighted! -- by just how much better he looked and sounded. He'd been gradually improving to that point, but he was just SO much more like his old self, even since our last visit on Monday. It was great to see!  
• He arrived home early Saturday afternoon! -- almost three full weeks after he was hospitalized, and 12 days after his operation.  He's a full 100 pounds lighter than he was at his peak weight!!  (But believe me, this is NOT the way you want to lose it!)  His arms are like toothpicks -- he's lost a lot of muscle mass, as well as weight (most of which he hopes to keep off for good) -- but the swelling in his abdomen is gone and the swelling in his legs has subsided considerably.  Absolutely amazing.  
• Meanwhile, dh's scratchy throat turned into a sore one, and he developed a horrible cough. Two negative covid tests to date, and he's feeling a bit better, but he's resolved to stay away from BIL and Older Nephew for a while longer. :(    (One of dh's cousins went to pick him & SIL up and bring them home.)  
• Dh couldn't resist heading over to BIL's on Saturday afternoon, though.  We both wore masks, the balcony door was open (ventilation) and we only stayed a few minutes. 
• We're both happy to see the last of downtown Toronto traffic for a while...!  It took us a FULL HOUR to travel from the hospital to the closest exit onto the expressway that runs east-west along the lakeshore -- a distance of barely more than 2 kilometres or 1 mile!  We couldn't get in the right lane in time to make the exit ramp, and had to loop around and try again. Sooooo frustrating!
• We could have taken the subway downtown -- there's a station a few miles/minutes away from where we live, with ample parking nearby, and a station right on the corner outside the hospital -- it's about a 45 minute trip -- but there's been an uptick of crime and violent incidents on there lately (albeit it's still very safe overall), and dh said he preferred to drive. And since he's the driver in the family...!  
• One of Older Nephew's Wife's friends started a GoFundMe on July 14th to benefit the family. In the week since then, it's racked up $6,000 from more than 30 generous donors! 
• I posted the link on my social media, and was tickled and touched to see two of my besties from high school donate $100 each. :)