Jack's Surgery and Aftermath

I've been seriously putting this off, and I'm so sorry.

January 17: We took Jack in for his surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. From past experience (watching other people go through similar things), we expected the surgery to last at least five hours. It didn't. He was on and off bypass in an hour, and the surgery itself took about two hours. The thing that took the longest was getting him prepped, and taking him off the respirator.

Seeing him in the PICU was a bit of a shock. We were slightly prepared beforehand, but it's very different when it's your own baby. After washing my hands, I ran to his side and nearly cried. C nearly passed out. Jack was hooked up to various IVs, had an oxygen mask on (his breathing was torturous, at best), and had a chest tube in (you could see the blood/fluids being drained from his chest). *shudder* He's a strong little man, though.

He spent one night in the PICU (his nurse that first day totally reminded me of my sister B--same smile, same sweetness, same calming attitude... it was very nice), and two nights in the pediatrics floor. We were sent home Sunday afternoon.

The doctor had told us that he wanted Jack up and walking the day after surgery; we didn't believe it was possible. Sure enough, he walked around a little bit. Two days post-surgery, he was walking, running, trotting--basically, he ruled the halls of the pediatrics floor; he acted like he owned the place.

The incision itself is a work of beauty. It looks like Jack just got a giant cut on his chest... it doesn't look like he just had open heart surgery. He's healing very fast, and is doing so well. He's still on a Motrin regimen, simply because it's still very painful for him. He also had Tylenol with Codeine "as needed for pain", which we've had to use a few times.

What a trooper!

A couple pictures...
Two days post-surgery:


Almost one week post-surgery:
















A lot of thanks are in order for: Dr Trento and his team of surgeons and doctors (including Ann, the cardiac nurse practitioner), Dr Wong, Dr Ferry, the Doctors and Nurses on the Pediatrics floor, the Nurses in the PICU (including Dr Amer in the PICU). Also: my family (brothers, sisters, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces & nephews, inlaws, etc) and my small, but tight, groups of various friends. Also also: C's coworkers & bosses, the vendors C calls daily (for their continued thoughts and prayers), and C's customers. Also x3: B&E Sales for the teddy bear that Jack says is "MINE!!!" and won't let his brother near. :)

Everyone has been incredibly supportive during this time, and has shown so much love and kindness and understanding. We really are blessed to have such a large group of friends and family, who have been praying for us and thinking about us--well, mostly Jack--during this whole ordeal.

Long story short: THANK YOU EVERYONE! WE LOVE YOU TOO! :D

more pre-op

This morning, we--C, Jack, and I--drove out to Cedars. It took us almost 2 hours to drive 30 miles. TWO HOURS. We decided, while sitting in horrible SoCal traffic, that we're going to call the hotel and see if we can get our stay extended, from Wednesday night on. Because, well, we don't want to wake up at 3am Thursday morning just to get our butts out to Cedars by 5:30am that morning. (We booked a hotel that's a little over a mile from Cedars-Sinai for the weekend, so we'll be using that as our "home base".)

Anyway... We parked, got the xray films, and took them over to the surgeon's office. We didn't have to wait long before the nurse saw us and took a general history of Jack, weighed and measured him, etc. Then we were sent over to the South Tower for blood stuff. We had to wait to be called to be registered for the bloodwork. Then wait some more for the paperwork. Then we went to the lab where it took all of 5 minutes for them to draw one vial of blood from Jack. They were sooo good there. And it helped that the nurse from the surgeon's office put a cream in the crook of Jack's arm that numbs it--he only cried while his blood was being drawn because he was watching them stick the needle in. Silly child. :p

And then we were done. We got home just after 12pm (we left this morning at about 7:45am). I dropped off C, and went to pick up Arlo from school.

My next update will be from the hospital, on Thursday.

EKG and XRays

This morning, we took Jack out to his doctor to get an EKG. It was relatively simple, and we got a copy of it. It seems similar to the others he's had (we have a full copy of his medical record), so nothing has changed.

We had an appointment to get some chest x-rays at 1:30pm, but we were done at the doctor's at about 10:30am, so we just made our way over to the imaging center. We got lost. Beverly Hills is confusing! Ugh. Finally, after getting turned around, I got us going in the right direction, and we made it all right. We got in there and were a couple hours early, but since we had that later appointment, we got put in almost right away. We barely had to wait at all.

I got to stay with him, and he was really good, but a little squirmy. The technician checked that the x-rays were okay, and then it was time to go. All of that--the EKG and x-rays--took about 2 hours. Not too bad. We headed home straight-away, and picked up Arlo from our friend's house; it was his first day back at school, so she took him and picked him up. (This school year, I took extra precautions because I knew we'd be going through all this, so I put our friends and extra family members on the "pick up" list for Arlo's school.)

We came home and all crashed. It was very tiring. We have to go back next monday and do more tests, paperwork, etc.

our schedule

January 7: we'll go to Jack's doctor and get an EKG, and then we'll head over to Cedars-Sinai and get his chest x-rays done.

January 14: we go back to Cedars-Sinai for blood work, make sure they have the x-rays, and I think a few other tests. I can't remember all the details, but we have to be at certain offices at certain times... we'll pretty much be spending our day there, running around the hospital from place to place.

January 17: Jack's surgery. We have to be at the hospital at 5:30am. They have a Starbucks there, so I'll purchase a one-day pass from T-Mobile and send out periodic updates. Assuming all goes well (and we should always hope for the best), he'll spend one night in the ICU, and another 3-5 days in a regular hospital room. At least he'll get to play in the playroom this time around. :)

That's it. Of course I'll post updates after each significant date (7th, 14th), but that's the gist of it. We have only been able to find one person with O- blood--my brother in law--but he's all the way in Utah, and we really don't want to have to pay the transit costs for getting it out here, should he donate. So, I guess we'll be relying on the general public's donations; which is fine, but we would have rather been able to do direct donations.

Pray for us.

P.S. I know we have a ton of support as we're going through everything. As the surgery date approaches, I am more and more grateful for the large support groups (aka: cheerleading sections *grin*) we are fortunate to have. Thank you all, for your love, kind thoughts, good karma, well-wishes, and prayers.