Were Home!

My first night home! I am happy!

Yes we are home and all is well! As most of you know we did get bumped on Tuesday and rescheduled to Wednesday. I had to be understanding because the doctor had to do a heart transplant. If I were at work I would have been drawing up all the medications up for this, which is a daunting task and you don't want to be the one on shift when you get one! As I put it, the haunt me at work and at home! We left the hospital on Friday, much to my discouragement! Cache did excellent during his surgery. I am amazed at how great things went.


Look! I will show you!

We had an awesome surgeon, Dr. Kaza. At first, I was a little weary of him because everyone in the pharmacy told me to have Dr. Hawkins do it. When I met him finally on Wednesday, my worries were gone. He explained the surgery and how he did not have to crack his chest because he has studied a new method of doing this through the left side. He did name drop which I didn't mind seeing as he was taking my son into surgery in an hour! He attended Harvard Med school and practiced at Boston Children's and this is where they did this new practice of putting in ICD's. They would use a scope and collapse the left lung. I don't really know why this sounded better then cracking the chest but it did! Then they would put the leads in through that small incision in the left side. They would reopen the belly and place the ICD in. It sounded great to us! Especially when he said less recovery time!

They did inform us half way through that they were done with the leads although they could not use the scope so the small incision turned out to be a big one! He was doing fantastic! It was great to hear! It was only an hour into surgery. About 1 1/2 hours later I saw Dr. Kaza coming. He had a smile on his face so I knew it must have went well. It wasn't as scary as the first time! He said it went perfect and they were moving him to the PICU right now. We were so happy and releved.



This is when they moved me up to the floors, I really like the drugs!

It was a long night in the PICU. They have no beds for parents so I slept in a rocking chair. If you call it sleep! Eric left around 7:00 p.m. that night. I stayed the whole time. He did have some strange tracing on his monitor. The PICU attending would come over and then it would go back! They nurse and I would just laugh because he thought we were crazy. We did find his magnesium levels were low so they gave him a few doses. Overall for the very tiring night, things went well. They did find the monitor was malfunctioning with the pacer, but his pacer did need to be adjusted. We went up to the surgical floor the next day which I knew would be nice because I would have a bed! They took out the chest tube and up we went! Cache and I just maily slept in the bed together which was nice because I got to cuddle him! I never get too so it was nice. You could tell he was not himself bacause he is a "monster" and runs around like crazy! He wouldn't take any medication that was liquid although we tried. So I had to have them change all the orders to tablets. Yes he can swallow pills, they were all so amazed by this. The next day they said to go home! I was scared and did not want to leave. I am so worried he is going to get hurt or get an infection, but they reassured me he would be fine.

So he seems to be doing great. He is finally eating and he even pooped! He will be happy to show you his wounds if you come over and will sign hurt. He knows that there is something in his belly and keeps feeling it. You can really see it, it is huge compared to the last one, which we got to keep! Don't ask me what I will do with it, but it is cool to see it. He walks like a little old man hunched over. I can tell he is still in pain but he is trying to keep up with everyone.




See my tummy!

We could not be happier and thankful that things went so great. I want to thank everyone who helped, called, and prayed for my little boy! It must have worked. He is such a cute little one that is stronger then anyone I know. We are forever grateful that God has blessed us with him and has given him so many chances at life. Thank you to all the doctors, nurses, ok I must say pharmacy peeps, and technology that helps keep my little guy going. I am happy to report I have not taken Xanax since Tuesday night. Although I will never give up coffee. Once again thank you!



Here are the my wounds, pretty gross, hu?

P.S. I know it is long but I never want to forget!