Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Open heart surgery


What a long day. It started off early. I got up at 5:30 so I could pump before getting ready to go to Primarys. I wanted to see my little Aiden before he was taken back for surgery which we were told was at 8:30. Sucky part of that time is that they are closed from 7-8 for shift change so I knew I would have a very short time with him before he was taken back. Well we got there and learned that his operation was pushed back to 10 due to an unforeseen problem. AKA another child had a problem and the anesthesiologist needed to take care of that child first. I didn't mind I had more me with my little man! Now we did leave for a few minutes because hubby and I had yet to eat breakfast our plans had been to eat after he was taken to surgery but since there was a wait we went and got some food.

After a quick breakfast we were back in his room. I stood by his little bed the whole time. And at 9:30 they said they were ready to take him for surgery. Russ and I followed him down. I did my very best to keep calm and not cry my eyes out. Not an easy task to do at all!. Finally we reached as far as we could go I gave him two kisses and left for the waiting room. 

About half hour after we were sitting there one of the doctors came out to tell us that he was being prepped and would be put on bypass in about hour. It was only about 45 minutes after that we were told that he was on bypass and was still doing well.

My parents showed up about an half hour after that with Connor. Who did OK in the waiting room, but did have many walks with grandpa to help calm him down. I was very thankful dad helped with that becasue I didn't dare leave that room! I didn't want to miss a single update. By the way the amount of people in and out of the in and out patient surgery waiting room was many more then I ever would have thought! We were there longer then most. But yes we saw a lot of families coming in and out waiting for the outcome of surgery for there kiddos.

Little over an hour after the last update the Doc came back and told us that everything went well, there had been little bleeding and he was off of bypass and they were working on closing him up. Hour r so after that the surgeon came out to talk to us. The defect had been very small and they had cut it out sewed the two ends together and patched the wound. Waiting to be able to go back to see him seemed to take the longest of all of the waiting, becasue I just wanted to see him already. Finally we were able to go back and I knew what I was going to see I tried my best to prepare myself for what was to come and I must admit he looked better then most babies I had seen after having heart surgery. his color was great! he was still his beautiful pink self. That alone made me feel good. The nurse explained all of the lines in him and I'll post pics of him  and try to explain what some of the lines you see are. He has many IVs a for different meds he was on including a pain killer of course! Also he was getting some blood, his own blood that was taken out during the surgery.





OK lest see how much of all this I remember. the big tubes going out of his tummy is collecting blood that is bleeding from his wound. Its normal.  Hes on a breathing tube to help him breath until he is healed up for a time. They say they may be able to take it out tomorrow. We'll see a baby in the room next to him had surgery yesterday and he still has his breathing tube (though he's much smaller and much paler then my little guy). The little pad on his forehead is reading his pulse ox. he has two wires going to his heart one is measuring his blood pressure at each heart beat the other is the blue wound up wire on his right side. Its a pacemaker and when i left they had not needed to sue it. I hope it stays that way. the rest of the tubes are his IVs.

I called a half hour ago to check on him and his night nurse is really nice. Like all the rest of the nurses she keeps going on about his little chubbiness. Most of the babies in the CICU are not chubby they are very small like I said he looks so much better then most of the babies there. And no I'm not just saying that becasue I'm his mom the nurses have hinted at it to. Anyways he's stable and doing well and has slept most of the time, which I'm glad about sleep little guy and heal. Oh I did see him move once while I was i the room with him. His nurse placed a stethoscope on him to check him and his little legs kicked up in surprise, made me smile.

2 comments:

Piper said...

I've been thinking of you today--I am very glad he is doing so well!

Blessed Rain said...

This is one of those times that having a bigger baby is a HUGE bonus!
Not that he is too big, just bigger then most babies needing surgery!
Glad that it is all over and soon he will be home!