Praising God

I don't know why I ever doubt Him, but Elijah's procedure went smoothly. Jake and I had a little bit of a "freak out" moment on Tuesday night. Jake came home early because he felt sick and all day I was worried. I kept having terrible thoughts of the "unthinkable". Sooo...we ended up having an "Elijah" night and took him to Chick-Fil-A for dinner and then went to go see Cars 2. I just kept thinking about how he'd want to spend his last day if something was to happen. Morbid. I know. I can't help it. I know too much...too much medical knowledge of all the "worsts" that could happen.

Wednesday morning was an "early" morning for us (well, at least for me...Jake always has early mornings). We had to check in at 8:30am so we left our house at 7am. Elijah was excited to get his arm bracelet and even asked the check-in lady for it. We went up to the 4th floor where he was weighed (16kg) and measured (38 inches) and was able to pick out his "prize", gecko Gus the beanie baby. We waited in our pre-op room where Elijah got his vitals taken. Thankfully I had brought a Fisher-Price doctors kit I had picked up for him around Christmas time just for this occasion. He started to act a little stressed but wasn't too bad...until we gave him his pajamas to put on. Then..he flipped out. He didn't want to go to sleep so he surely did NOT want pajamas on. Our nurse decided that he might not make it back to the OR without a little extra help...so he got some oral Versed, a sedative....and then things got interesting. He was fine...then all of a sudden he was like a drunk little boy. Everything made him giggle. He couldn't sit up well...in fact, I put up one of the side rails to the bed and then sat on the other side of him because he kept slumping over. They brought a doggy in to help calm him down (although by this time it was a little too late for that!) Then it was time for the nurse to take him back. Of course, by this time he freaked out again and left screaming...which was hard for me to see. Now it was on to the waiting game.

We decided not to wait in the waiting area so Jake, his Dad, and our Pastor and his wife, and I all went down to get some coffee. We nervously chitchatted for about an hour and a half when our pager went off (they give you pagers like when you're waiting for a dinner table at the Olive Garden...how cool is that?) We went back upstairs and found out that no, he wasn't done, they just wanted consent to do a transesophogeal echo to better see if the VSD that he has could also be repaired by cardiac catheterization at a later time. A little while later the Dr. came back to talk to us. The good news...the procedure went well and his PDA is now closed. The bad news...it looks like he will need open heart surgery to close the VSD. Jake and I aren't really sure about this. I have a medical background and yet I am still a tad confused. We felt like the Dr. was kind of unsure himself. Apparently they accept blood flow of 1. If it is 1.5, they suggest closure. His was 1.9. After the PDA closure it went to 1.5 (which is right at the cutoff). So now...we wait. In 4-6 weeks we see his cardiologist (the one we have seen since birth, not the one that did the surgery) and get another echo and crunch some blood flow numbers. Needless to say...I'm a little saddened. I am torn. I don't want him to have open heart surgery. My poor little man....that would break my heart. But I also now have questions. If we don't do it, does this increase his risk for things like congestive heart failure as an adult? Will it decrease his life expectancy because of that? Will it continue to make his left side of his heart enlarge? So many questions now.

Anyway. Not too much longer after we spoke with the dr we were led back to see him. I could hear him freaking out before we got to his bed. They had me get into bed with him and hold him. They pushed some fentanyl..a little fast for me...but that's just the RN in me. He looked okay...but helpless once it kicked in and he was silently laying in the bed. He had to keep his leg straight for 6 hrs. Hard for a 3yr old to do unless they are sedated. So he had a precedex drip (actually just recently learned about this amazing drug) and except for one random "sit up in the bed, ask for Momma, and lay back down again" he didn't wake up until they wanted him to. We were discharged at 7:45pm and just shortly before he got his dinner of strawberry ice cream and cheese puffs. Surprisingly, he went to bed that night...and woke up promptly at 6:30 am ready to bounce off the walls. We've tried to keep him quiet with games and movies..but that only goes so far. In any event, except for the 2 small puncture wounds in his right groin, one would never know he just had anything done.

I'm pleased with how things went (to an extent...obviously the questionable need for further surgery is not the best news) and love a couple things about the hospital. They had a child life specialist on the floor...solely for helping preop kids. They had pagers so we didn't feel like we had to sit around in the waiting area (made me more nervous) AND they didn't harrass me for my copay. Didn't even say a word about it. Also...the anesthesiologist said something that made me feel good. He said that he takes his job seriously and that he would do anything that he needed to keep him (Elijah) safe because Elijah was important to me which made him important to him (the anesthesiologist). Anyway. Glad it's over...not looking forward to our new decision though.