Operation Day!!!

Wow! It's been a long, emotional day for our family.  KC and I got up at around 4:00 a.m. and got ourselves and Jacob ready to go so that we would be at the hospital by our 5:30 a.m. check in time.  We made sure to dress him in his "Fix Me" onsie that his darling big sister, Elisha made for him:

Needless to say, it was an absolute HIT! The heart staff loved it! 

It was an often surreal moment for us as we finally got to meat with the nurses, go through all of our paperwork AGAIN and remind the doctors that, yes, we did want him tested for hyper coagulation (he tested within normal parameters) and yes, we wanted to make sure that he would be VERY sedated after surgery.  

We joked over the size of his file (now well over 5 inches thick - impressive by even the hospital's standards, especially for a 3-month old!), held Jacob for a few more minutes, and kissed our patiently wide-eyed infant son good bye as the hospital staff wheeled him away to be anestesized. 

Then we were done.

Our arms were empty, our hearts, full of anticipation and hope, and minds racing with all of life's 'what if's' imaginable.  All we could do was wait.  And wait. and wait. 

Finally, 4 phone calls and nearly 5 hours later, we were met with by both the cardiologist and the heart surgeon.  Both said that the operation went smoothly, his holes were patched, and his valves weren't leaking.  All they needed to do was get him situated in PICU and we could see him in a 1/2 hour.

Now, the cardiologist, the surgeon, and various other doctors and nurses all described what we would see in the hospital room when we showed up.  I had been a rock all day, but I wasn't sure if I could keep it together when I saw my baby hooked up to everything.  When we walked into PICU there were 5 people in his room all busily working around his bed hooking him up to monitors, bags, pumps, reading charts, organizing medicines, giving directions, etc.  It was like a carefully choreographed dance with steps and props all intertwined amongst one another.  It was actually quite impressive. 

In the middle of it all was our 11 1/2 lb, 22 1/2 inch 3-month-old Jacob so drugged up he didn't know what planted he was on.  And considering all that he'd been through.  That was a GOOD thing. 

I counted.  Jacob was attached to 5 different bags, 12 different pumps, and 3 different monitors.  There was no way to count the number of tubes coming in and out of his body - it was just one big rat's nest of tubes.

I don't know how I did it, but I didn't shed a tear.  I think the knowledge that he won't remember this when he's older helped. 

Everyone said that he was doing amazingly well considering everything and discussed the idea of possibly taking his breathing tube out later tonight.  The doctors would like to remove one thing per day - i.e. the breathing tube, the central line within the next 24-48 hours, the tubes in his stomach, etc. 

We were told that possibly as soon as tomorrow we will be able hold him, and if all goes well and he continues to progress as he has, he may go home as early as this weekend or possibly the first part of next.

Here's to hoping!!!