Post-Op Day #1

Sorry for not posting again last night. We came and saw Peyton and everything was going so well. And I was gonna post after we got back to the Ronald McDonald House but it was snowing and we left the laptop in the van so I decided that it would have to wait until today. So, a recap of yesterday after surgery....

After we talked with the surgeon, they moved Peyton to the CICU and we went to check into the Ronald McDonald House. They put us into a room at House 3 which is for adults and no children (except infants). We are on the third floor and they only have stairs so we are definitely getting a work out. Our room is really nice. It has a queen bed and a little pull out bed, a fireplace (that we can't use), and TV, and a big bathroom. They also have a communal kitchen, laundry room, dining room, and living room with TV. The house used to be a bed and breakfast and it's one of the older homes in SLC. Once I take pictures, I'll have to post those on the blog.

So after we got checked in, we went back to the CICU to check up on Peyton. He was intubated (but breathing a few breaths on his own), had an RA line (coming out of his heart), an ART line (in his groin), an IJ line (in his neck), 3 chest tubes, and 2 IV's (one in his hand and one in his foot).



They were giving him his own blood, milrinone (helps heart squeeze), tranexamic acid (helps to clot blood after the heparin during surgery), and nipride (lowers blood pressure). His sats were right around 90-91.



And he was pink.....he looked so good! He was starting to stir a little bit and so we started to talk to him.



Because he was still intubated we couldn't hear anything. He was coughing and then he would start to cry. You could see little tears coming from his eyes but couldn't actually hear him crying. It was really sad to watch. And then it looked as if he was saying "Mommy".



So, I sat by him and held his hand and comforted him. He was opening his eyes a little bit whenever we would talk to him. They slowly started to wean the vent. We asked them to put the vent on spontaneous mode while they did shift change and we ate dinner. And that we would be back in a little bit and to wait until then to wean the vent.



We decided to go to Wingers for dinner since I will be eating cafeteria food for awhile. We had ordered our food and were just sitting there and watching the Jazz game when the power went out. And then it came back on and then it went out again. It was quite an experience! And then we had to clean lots of snow off the car when we came back out only an hour later! We got so much snow up here...there was probably a good 6 inches.




Anywho, when we came back around 8:30PM, they had just barely pulled the breathing tube out. He wasn't real happy but he did okay. We sat with him for about an hour until he started to go back to sleep. Then we decided that we all needed a good night's sleep so we went back to the Ronald McDonald House. It took quite a while since the roads were really bad. When we got to the driveway, we didn't get a running start and we got stuck. Montana had to get out and push while I backed out. And then I gunned it and we got into our parking spot. And then this morning, we had a hard time getting out of the parking lot. Oh well, the joys of snow.

I was really glad that we went to the house last night to sleep. I felt a headache coming on and knew that I really needed sleep. After being up since 4:30AM yesterday, I knew I would be of no help to Peyton if I didn't sleep....and take a shower!

We came back to the hospital after shift change this morning, around 8AM. Peyton had just fallen to sleep. He threw up a little bit so he has been given Zofran. He did really well through the night and is during amazingly well without the ventilator.



I'm just amazed at how coherent he is and how well he is doing. He looks so good and only really crys when he's hurting. He is on morphine and tylenol and we will start loritab when he eats a little bit more. He has been drinking PediaSure (surprise, surprise :) ) and he just started to drink a strawberry milkshake. He only has a couple of drips left and two lines to pull before he can be moved to the floor! Dr. Etheridge came in this morning and said he is doing really well. And that it is possible that he will be moved to the floor tomorrow. He is watching PBSKids and just relaxing. He also blew some bubbles and blew a pinwheel! YAY!!!



The plan for today is to take it easy and just watch him. They are planning on pulling the ART line and the RA line in the early afternoon. We are so pleased with the progress that he is making. We will continue to keep updated but it might only be once a day since I'm just lovin on him while I can.



P.S. They just pulled out his IJ Line while I've been uploading pictures as well as his ART line. He cried cause it hurt but he's doing okay now!