The days after surgery

Preston is such a trooper! He is doing great!! Yesterday was the longest day of my life. We got to the hospital at 7 am. I can't tell you how many times the thought of just not showing up crossed my mind. I knew in my heart that we had to do this to make him better, but I didn't (and still don't) ever want him to have to feel pain. He was so good before they took him back. We got to spend some time together with our families and everyone got to see him before the surgery started.

They finally took him back at 9:30. He hadn't eaten since midnight so the hardest part of keeping him occupied was fighting his hunger. It took about two hours from that point until the surgery actually began. It takes that long for the anesthesia team to get their lines set up and going. Dr. Tam came out and talked to us at 11:30 to let us know that he was going in to began the procedure. He told us it should take anywhere from 3-4 hours from that point for him to finish.

Someone from inside the OR called every hour to give us an update. Every time they called they let us know that things were going well and that he was doing fine. He was on the heart/lung machine for about two hours while they stopped his heart to make the repairs. While they were in there they banded his pulmonary artery to restrict blood flow to his lungs a little more and closed an atrial septal defect. He also put the bi-lateral bi-directional Glenn into place. This is what connects the blood flow from the top portion of his body directly to his lungs.

Surgery lasted until about 5:45. We got to see him coming out of the OR on his way to ICU and that was pretty tough. It was a weird feeling because I at least knew that he made it through surgery all right, but I knew we had a long few hours ahead of us.

We immediately saw Dr. Tam and he explained everything that he saw. Preston did have to get some blood while he was on the heart/lung machine, but that's a minor part of the surgery. He discovered that the top right pumping chamber (the right atrium) is actually connected to the left ventricle (which is not developed). His heart, in a sense, sits in an inverted position. Eventually this could cause blockage, which means possibly needing a pace maker in the future. He didn't necessarily find any huge surprises, we had just never talked about the possibility of a pace maker.

All of this information was VERY overwhelming having just seen our baby come out of an eight hour open-heart surgery. I knew what Dr. Tam was saying, but I wanted to see our cardiologist because he can explain things a little more clearly. As luck would have it, he had come to check on Preston during surgery and found us shortly after.

Dr. Siu (P's cardiologist) talked with our families for about 45 minutes explaining that Dr. Tam had mentioned the pace maker only because he didn't want us to be blind-sided by it if it did become a necessity. he was able to explain to our parents what we've been trying to relay to them for months, and I think that helped them to have a better understanding of everything. When he was finished talking to us, he led our families in a beautiful prayer...incredible!

We got to stay with him while he was in ICU which was great. The first night was good, they kept him pretty comfortable and he didn't have too much awake time. They took him off of the ventilator around 9 and he did really well with that. It was very scary! They like for them to get feisty before and after so they can make sure that they're continue to breathe off of the machine.

Brian and I both stayed with him that night...which was quite interesting! I hadn't slept at all the night before and we were both emotionally exhausted. There was a 'couch bed' thing that both of us managed to sleep on. For most of the night we slept head to toe, you know like you did at summer camp! We're not small people so it had to have looked hilarious!!

They slowly took him off of everything that he was hooked up to. He had lines that were connected to his heart to watch the pressures and rhythms, a central IV, an IV in the artery in his right arm, catheter, and a chest tube for the drainage coming off of his chest. They had all of it out by Thursday morning and had a started a smaller IV in his arm for the meds he was still getting intravenously.

We moved up to the cardiac unit yesterday so baby P now has a private room. It's a lot more peaceful in here and he got to take his first wagon ride:). He only has an IV in his arm and has a heart monitor on that his tracked 24 hours a day. Brian stayed with him last night while I went home to sleep. I got a great night's sleep, unfortunately Brian can't say the same! He said that everytime he would fall asleep Preston would start to wake up about 30 minutes later. I'm staying tonight so hopefully he'll get some more sleep.

We saw Dr. Roten today and she mentioned the possibility of going home Sunday if things continue to improve. He has to be eating normally (which he's not, yet), not be fussy, and be off of all pain meds (he's on motrin and lortab). He has a little bit of fluid on his lungs because of the huge change of blood flow so he gets lasix to help pull that out. As of now, when we go home he will only be on half a baby aspirin a day, lasix, and blood pressure medicine.

Baby P and Daddy are sleeping peacefully now as a beautiful CD plays. One thing they gave me at work last week was Bless my Baby Boy and it is so wonderful. As soon as I turned it on Preston started laying still and was asleep within five minutes!! Everyone keeps telling us how wonderful he is doing and our only reasoning is the Power of Prayer! We are so grateful for all of the thoughts and prayers that have been spoken for us!

The picture that Brian took in ICU secretly.

His wagon ride from ICU to the cardiac unit.

Sleeping...