Surgery day: the aftermath

Well, we survived it. And sitting here in a very dark bedroom, relaxing, has never felt better.

To re-cap the day, they came to pick him up from the room at around eleven this morning. Earlier than they thought it would be, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing in our book, because an earlier start time meant an earlier finish! He had also been off food since about two in the morning, so he was a very hungry, cranky little boy. Regardless of the fact that they had him on IV fluids to keep him functional, his stomach was empty, and he was decidedly not happy about it. At least under anesthesia, he wouldn't be aware of it, anymore.

We left the hospital not long after they took him off, because there was no use sitting around the hospital, brooding. We went back to the RMH to kill some time, and were joined not too long afterward by Tanner's parents, who had brought Wade up with them! I've missed that little booger an awful lot.

We all grabbed a bite to eat, then went back to our room so Wade could catch a nap. About three o'clock, we got a page to head back over to the hospital, because they were just finishing up, and the surgeon wanted to meet with us. The surgery itself only lasted about two hours, total. After waiting in the lounge for about half an hour, while they settled him in and got him all hooked up, we finally got to go in to see him again! The doctors and nurses had all been very sure to tell us about all the new things that he'd be connected to, so it wasn't shocking to see him, like it may have been otherwise, but it still wasn't a whole lot of fun to see him like he was.

At the urging of the nurses, who told us that what he needed most was a quiet night to start healing, we left not long afterward and went to dinner. Turns out, a nice quiet evening was what we needed, too. Sometimes, hanging out in the hospital room isn't the best thing for one's mental well-being. So now we're all tucked in, Wade snoring away on his little mattress on the floor of our room, and Tanner snoozing next to me. I'm just about to joint them.

Before I do, though...I happen to have a decent "before" picture of him in his hospital equipment, pre-surgery, so I thought it would be neat to do a kind of side-by-side. I haven't actually explained, yet, what all of the original wires are for, so I can do that at the same time.

The left picture is Brandt pre-surgery, obviously. The strip on his forehead is a pulse-oximeter, specifically for reading blood flow to his brain. He has a matching one on his back, over his kidneys, because those are the last two places to lose oxygen. If they start reading badly, the doctors know for sure that something's wrong. The nasal canula is self-explanatory...this morning, the oxygen flow was just to remind him to breathe, as the medication he was on caused some apnea. In the picture on the right, it's been replaced with a breathing tube, which did all the work for him during surgery, and continues to do so now, to take some strain off of his body as he heals.

The bandage on his right hand is covering up a little wound where an IV leaked into his hand, the first day in the hospital. It caused his hand to swell, and as the fluid had no place to go, it worked its way out through the skin and caused a little burn of sorts. It's healing well. On that same arm, more visible in the right picture, is an IV port. It hasn't been used in quite a while, but since it's functional, they leave it there, as a just-in-case, because it's really hard to plant an IV into tiny baby veins.

The stickers with wires on them are heart rate and breathing monitors...kind of a pain when it comes to holding him, because when they get bumped or partially unstuck, they make the monitor (and the nurses) go haywire. Then on his left hand (in the left picture) is another pulse-oximeter, getting a basic read for the whole body. That little red light can burn the skin if left in place too long, so it gets circled from limb to limb, periodically. In the right picture, it's under the white band on his right foot. The white band is what holds his name tag on.

His PICC line is inserted into the groin area on his right leg (visible in both pictures). On his left leg is a blood pressure cuff. That essentially covers everything in the left picture, so to finish up, we'll move on to the right. Everything that's different happened during his surgery today.

First, is a new IV in his neck, called a central line. They won't need this many IV's for long (he's on a lot of meds right now, so they're currently necessary), so this will be the first to go when possible. He also has a blood pressure reading device under the skin in his left wrist, hence the big brace, so keep everything there stable. The silver foil heart patch on his chest is attached to his bed...it reads his temperature and adjusts the heater above him accordingly, since he can't be swaddled due to all his new stuff. Pretty snazzy, right?

Lastly, there's the incision, that runs essentially the length of the sternum, and the drainage tube below it. I had thought there would be two, but apparently just the one was enough in his case. Underneath the little white patch, and connected to the small yellow wire that's bundled up right there, is essentially a small pacemaker; another just-in-case, for if his heart needs any extra help in the next couple days. It will be removed after a couple days.

I think that covers all of it!

And now I'm off to sleep...partially because my computer is down to 10% battery and I left the charger in the hospital room. Goodnight, all!