Installment # 5 - the Surgery

At the time we came home, our wonderful heart Dr was saying at about 6 mos. is when we'll probably do the surgery to close those holes. In the meantime, we were to look for signs of heart failure and visit him at least every month. At our January appt., he said he would be talking to the surgeon about Jack. While out furniture shopping, I got the call on my cell phone, we need to schedule a date for surgery, the nurse will call you. I actually had a moment when I felt light-headed, like I might pass out. My MIL asked if I was okay and I think I said no. Everything happened so quickly after that. That was Thurs, they wanted us to come in for pre-surgery stuff the next day and have surgery Mon, I said no because we needed to make arrangements for the other kids, so we were to go in on Mon. and the surgery would be Tues! I called our pastor who got us in for Jack's baptism that Sun and we had his picture taken on Sat (no scar pics).

We got to the hosp. Tues morning and I think we were in shock. It didn't become real 'til I handed him to the anesthesiologist. Our wonderful pastor sat with us awhile that morning, but mostly, it was me and Allan. Finally, the surgeon came out and said everything went well and they would come get us to see him soon! He slept all that day. On Wed. he was still out of it, but restless. I had to stand by his bed and hold his pacifier for him or he fussed, 'til he fell asleep for 20 mins. (He never took a paci at home.) By that evening, he settled down and finally really went to sleep. Thurs., the nurse said "he's going to PICU!" which meant he was doing great! He was awake and alert and I got to carry him to his new room. He didn't get any morphine after Wed. evening and I learned you have to ask for Tylenol even if your baby has his heart cut open! So Thurs and Fri progressed, and Sat morning the surgeon came in and said "so, you want to go home?". I said yes and called Allan and he came and got us! So be warned, these pics aren't pretty but his recovery was amazing!
Tuesday:


Wednesday:


Thursday:


Saturday (right before we went home):


The following Thurs (9 days post-surgery):


Pretty good huh?
And here's one of his scar from this past summer:


So now Jackson has a very healthy heart and sometimes I'm actually glad it was bad enough for surgery because now we don't have to worry. I still think of it as a miracle. Here's another interesting and wonderful thing that happened - exactly one week after surgery, and on my birthday, Jackson gave me a wow, there you are! smile for the first time! I cried. It was amazing.