Journal Series - Day 4

• If you’re just joining, I am doing a little journal series of our time in the hospital when Mr. Green had his open heart surgery to fix his heart defects that were discovered in utero. These are the thoughts, feelings, and emotions I had while there and the different situations we were in. I journaled every day we were there so I could look back and remember.

The nurse came in at 2:30am because little man pulled out his foot IV line. She got him all fixed up and checked blood pressure again and then I nursed him so he was able to get Tylenol, then I nursed for a little bit longer and finally we were all about to get some rest! They came in while Nic and I were sleeping, probably about 5am for his chest X-ray and then back to sleep for all of us. A little after 7 the doctor came in and woke Mr. Green up and he was HUNGRY! He nursed on both sides and then was finally able to get more Tylenol at 8:30. He’s been pretty fussy and irritable this morning, just seems to be in pain - making it hard for him to calm down to even nurse, he mostly just cries. And with every sneeze, burp, cough - he grimaces and cries. The doctor came in at 8:45 and checked him over and said his O2 could be lowered and that he looks great! At 8:50 he bumped his O2 down to 2. The respiratory therapist came in at 9 to for CPT (the vibration thing to help break the gunk up in his lungs) and changed his poopy diaper for us. Way to go Mr. Green! At 9am rounds they discussed removing his chest tube and pacing wires. And since he’s only on 2L, they also talked about moving him to low flow O2 as needed. And no more CPT needed since his lungs looked a lot more clear on his last chest X-ray - then he would officially be considered step down! (Meaning no longer needing a 24hr nurse just for him). Once the respiratory therapist finished his last CPT she removed his nose cannula. Once he calmed down we video chatted big brothers so they could finally see him without all the wires and tubes on his face. And he ALMOST cracked his first smile since surgery.

Last photo with nose cannula in.

Video chatting with big brothers.

Then he settled in for a good nap before they come back to hopefully remove the pacing wires and chest tube. They’ll give him some morphine before they do that because it can be pretty uncomfortable - but said the relief should be pretty immediate for him once it’s out. He will also need a new IV line put in before removing his central line so they have something in, just in case. While he napped I watched church.

He woke up for a little bit around 11am and had a good wake time that he wasn’t fussy - so Nic and I tried real hard to get a smile out of him but he wasn’t having it. In that time, the little baby next door coded and even though it’s not my child I had all the feelings (still do even typing this out). I immediately began to cry, I felt scared and helpless - but also extremely grateful it wasn’t our sweet boy and that he was making such great strides each day. So Nic and I did the only thing we could do, pray. So now we wait until the doctors are done helping the sweet baby next door, and that our prayers for him will be answered. Once they finish helping the baby and finish rounds, then they’ll be by to remove more of Mr Greens wires and tubes and such. At 1:35pm they came in to give him oxycodone in preparation to have his chest tube removed as it can be very uncomfortable. At 1:50 they came in to replace an IV since he pulled them all out, but they couldn’t get it. (The IV would be a just in case since they want to remove his central line.) At 2:15 the team came in to remove his chest tube and pacing wires - he sure didn’t love it but hopefully he’ll be a lot more comfortable now and can start to take better and more full breaths. They also removed the large dressing over his incision on his chest and it looks so great! They were done by 2:40, it took more time prepping to remove the tube than the actual removal itself. Then I was finally able to pick him up by myself - without any help - and comfort him and then he slept peacefully.

Up until this we always had to have help from a nurse if we wanted to hold him. He slept on and off most of the afternoon. At 4:30 I picked him up just to snuggle and nurse him and I was just so happy to be able to pick him up by myself and hold him close without worrying about pulling something that might hurt him. The nurse came in at 4:45 to give him Tylenol and just like big brothers, he hated every second of it. Since they switched to oral meds today, he has not been a fan. Then he had a good poopy diaper, we hung out, ate, and waited for the nurse to come in and give him a bath. She came in around 6pm and removed all his EKG leads and wiped him down - also not a fan of that either. At 6:40 I scooped him up to snuggle and he decided he should probably nurse again. At the 7pm shift change they told us he was officially considered step-down, so they would now do vitals every 4 hours instead of every 2 and they will only do rounds for him in the morning instead of both morning and evening. Around 7:15pm he FINALLY gave us his first smile since surgery, man we had been waiting a while for that! The nurse came in around 7:30 for vitals and to give him his LASIK (drug that helps to remove fluids in the body - the biggest concern is fluid build up around the heart), then I changed his diaper and swaddled him up to nurse and off to bed for all of us. Nic and I haven’t gotten much sleep so we’re looking forward to an early bedtime and a potentially more relaxed next couple of days. Mr. Green was sleeping pretty restlessly and around 10 decided he needed to eat, so now that he’s all satisfied hopefully Mom can sleep!