James's Surgery

Well James's surgery has come and gone and lets just say I am glad that is over with. We don't have too many pictures of his while he was in the hospital but here is the low down. We took him for his pre-op testing which was horrible! Trying to get blood from a 16 month old is not easy for the child or the parent. After that ordeal he didn't want anyone to touch him.

We had to be at the hospital at 4:45 in the morning and James did great up until they gave him the sedative. Apparently he had an opposite reaction and after an initial "drunk" drooling James he got really restless and super angry. They gave him another dose right before they took him back and apparently he got even worse!

The surgery lasted about an hour and a half and we finally got to see him in the CICU. It still rips my heart open to recall seeing him because I felt so horrible letting them do this to him! They had to be a little more invasive than usual because he isn't as stretchy as a normal toddler is so his incision was a little longer. He had a chest tube in and was pretty heavily medicated. He just laid there and whined the most pitiful whine ever. He developed a condition called Chylothroax which means the lymph nodes that were cut leaked too much fluid. This is pretty rare to have happen but James doesn't know anything different other than being the one in a million. His first chest tube got blocked and he had a large amount of fluid around one lung so they had to go back in and take it out and put another one in. Then it was just a matter of waiting until his drainage stopped.

He was in the hospital for about 5 days and he did great. He just sat in his crib and played, slept and watched Elmo. We went for wagon rides around the cardiac unit and even made it to the play room once or twice. It is amazing how quick these little guys recover.

We have noticed a great improvement in his tendency to choke. He hasn't had any problems since the surgery so we know it has helped him. The breathing issues will take up to 6 months to fully correct themselves but we are happy we went ahead and got this abnormality corrected. He got the all clear from his follow up cardiologist appointment we had a couple weeks ago and he doesn't have to go back to see them for another 8 months!

We are happy this whole ordeal is over and glad our boy is back to normal!

In the CICU

Cruising around the cardiac unit