Post Surgery
Sunday 12:15: WE ARE DISCHARGED!! Will start another post with details on the correction and his final readings. Will keep everyone updated on post opp progress over the next 6 weeks.
Sunday 9AM: WE ARE GOING HOME TODAY!!!! He just has his X-ray. Waiting on his Echo. All his labs look great. He’s super active. He definitely protects his chest and will tell you when things hurt, but he’s doing great. He slept really well last night too.
Saturday 11:15PM: Wyatt played his heart out tonight. We sang songs, jumped on the piano, colored pictures and read books. His schedule is definitely off, which is to be expected. He’s asleep in his bed and we are hopefully going to get to go home tomorrow night. In the morning he’ll have an X-Ray and an Echocardiogram that both have to be good in order to leave. He’s covered in stickers and tape, so I’m anticipating quite the meltdown as all of that gets removed. For now we are so glad he is doing so well.
Saturday 9PM: Miracles seem to have happened in the last 7 hours. Wyatt is a brand new kid. He’s up and moving…and by moving, I mean that nurses are chasing him down the hall. He wants to explore everywhere. He is very happy that the day shift nurse has left as he associates her with all the pain from removing his drain and neck IV. By the time her shift was over, as soon as she took one step in our room he would scream at her. He will not stop chatting. He does keep saying… “I have idea…car and home.” So we keep laughing at that. And of course, in a sign he’s really getting back to normal, he’s drinking smoothies and eating sushi with us for dinner.
Saturday 2PM: I was able to go back and get about four hours of sleep, so here’s the update I was provided. He has his blood transfusion and that went well. They took out his stomach drain and his neck IV. He did eat a little bit of yogurt and smoothie for breakfast. He took a few steps to Grandma! ❤️ He’s back to not urinating, so hopefully that resolves again. Wyatt is taking a much needed nap now. Hopefully when he wakes up, he can eat a late lunch and walk a bit more.
Saturday 8AM: There hasn’t been a lot of change since earlier this morning. They are attempting to wean him off the IV narcotics and onto an oral Oxy. It should be longer lasting and help with ongoing pain. Prior to this we had a green button that I would hit anytime he said he was in pain and it would administer the narcotics via IV. I was a bit nervous about overdosing him but they assured me that the machine wouldn’t let that happen. He’s had abnormal arrhythmias on and off for the last few hours so they keep repeating EKGs. They also did another chest X-Ray at 4am to check the progress of the fusing together of his chest bones. It’s nice that all the machines and tests come to us so he can just stay in bed. He hasn’t gotten really much sleep because he’s poked, probed or tested every hour or so. He’s finally sleeping, which is much needed. The cardiac surgeon just came in and told us that Wyatt needs a blood transfusion. His hemoglobin is very low. Hopefully this perks him up. If all goes well with the transfusion they are hoping that his chest tube drain can come out later today. I haven’t slept since 4am yesterday, so waiting for visitor hours to begin so Grandma and Aunt Ryanne can swap out so we can sleep a few hours.
Saturday 2:30AM: Wyatt has been struggling with aggressive vomiting the last few hours. He started vomiting mucus and lots of blood and now it’s just pure water. He’s been drinking water non stop, but we keep joking he’s now cut off — it is 2am after all, it’s bar close. The nurses aren’t alarmed and said it is just his body getting over the anesthesia. He finally urinated and we changed a very wet diaper just now, about 12 hours after he last went. Also good news. This is the first time he’s really been awake and happy. He’s finally sitting in his bed, watching the Grinch steal Christmas and eating a grape popsicle. Fingers crossed that he keeps the popsicle down. Luckily my dad lives close and has graciously been the laundry attendant as we’ve gone through many blankets and outfits at this point. Wyatt’s had a busy 4 hours. Most importantly, his personality is a glimpse of his old self. He does enjoy telling the nurses “no thank you” when they try and take his blood - he very politely is trying hard to reject medical care. He’s also telling me all about how the Grinch is his favorite movie and JJ is his favorite show.
Friday 8PM:
Not a lot has changed. He’s still very tired and in pain when his meds wear off. He unfortunately hasn’t urinated since taking the catheter out, despite drinking a lot of fluids and being on an IV. He’s about to have a bladder ultrasound to determine if there’s a blockage and may have to reinsert the catheter. He still won’t sleep in the bed, so we are taking turns holding him. Only parents are allowed overnight, so the helpers will return in the morning around 10. We’ve found that ice packs really seem to help his pain (which is great because this room is hotter than the lower floor of hell). And we have a steady supply so that whomever is holding him can layer in ice packs so we don’t melt. As far as heart function goes, everything is good. His repeat EKG a few hours ago was perfect. And he’s been taken off all heart medication. The only medication he’s taking at this point are for pain. They anticipate he won’t need any other ongoing heart when we discharge either. After the ultrasound I’m going to try and sleep - although I have a lot more Disney movies to catch up on, which is not an issue since it seems to be the only thing that plays on the TV! 🙂 The entire staff here have been beyond amazing. We have 1:1 nursing the entirety of the stay and everyone is so attentive and wonderful to be around. We can’t say enough great things about it.
Wyatt is out of surgery. We are so happy. Now the road to recovery begins. His incision is about 5 inches. He is very congested and coughing from the breathing tube - but naturally it hurts him to cough. The hope is he could drink some fluids today or maybe eat a popsicle. It could take him a few hours to really start waking up before he has any interest in that. He’s currently asleep in my arms.
