Conor's Heart - Part 4

The plan for Conor's heart surgery was to do a left subclavian flap repair. They would take an artery running to his left arm and bring it down to widen his aorta. One doctor described it by telling us to think of the aorta and the artery as tubes and that they would basically be flaying them both open and attaching them together to make one tube out of the two of them. Below is one of the pictures we were shown. 

Supposedly this should have no noticeable effect on his left arm, besides not being able to have his pulse or blood pressure accurately measured from that arm. Possibly his left arm will be marginally shorter, though it shouldn't cause him any problems. He told us that as far as heart defects go this was one of the most easily fixable, and that he'd done this surgery so many times that he stopped counting. As horrifying as it was to be told that our baby needed heart surgery it was very reassuring to know how competent and experienced the doctor performing it was. While the surgery would take about three hours in total he said his part of it would only take between eight and thirty minutes. We were told that once he was out of surgery we would be waiting to call it a success until he woke up and was able to cry and move his legs and feet. There is a vocal nerve that runs right where the surgery was being done and it is not uncommon for it to be damaged as it is only about the size of a hair. And paralysis was another risk associated with the surgery, due to the fact that his extremities would be getting basically no blood flow during the surgery.

Conor was taken back for surgery around three thirty and it was shortly before seven that the doctor came out to tell us that "it couldn't have gone more perfectly". It was such a relief to hear those words!

It was another half hour or so before he was settled in the Pediatric ICU and we were taken back to this sight:

So many wires coming out of our boy! They placed two arterial lines along with all his IV lines, one in his neck and one in his right wrist, and he was still intubated and asleep from the anesthesia. I was glad to see how completely relaxed his little face looked. Even when he was sleeping in the ER or NICU before his surgery his little face still looked quite distressed, furrowed brow, etc. It was nice to see that he was completely pain and discomfort free for a little while. His nurse told us that she always advised parents to go home for the first night, since it would be hours before he woke up and we weren't going to be able to hold him anyway. With babies as young as Conor we were told it wasn't unusual for them to even take a few days to wake up from the anesthesia, which was kind of a scary thought. She promised to call us when he woke up so we went home for the night to try to get some rest.

He ended up waking up at about one in the morning, and she did not call us after all, which was probably for the best because we were finally getting some sleep for the first time in what felt like days. The next morning we hurried back up to Baltimore and were so excited to see this awake boy. He was able to both cry and move his legs shortly after he woke up and was back to breathing on his own! He's pretty swollen in this picture from all the fluids they'd been pumping in to him. 

We tried spending the following night in his room but quickly learned why his first nurse had suggested we not. They kept his bright room lights on all night and the nurse came in every twenty minutes or so to monitor him and do whatever other nurse-ly stuff she had to do. I was pleased he was being monitored so closely and taken care of so well but it made any attempts at sleeping there pretty much impossible. 

Finally, finally on Friday we got to hold him again. We hadn't gotten to do that since Tuesday when we took him to the ER. He still had so much stuff attached to him, it seemed like it was actually a bit uncomfortable for him, so we both snuggled him as best we could for a few minutes and then put him back in his bed. He also finally started getting some breastmilk in to his tummy through a feeding tube. I had felt so badly for him not getting to eat for so long. The nurses kept reassuring us that he was getting his nutritional needs met through the fluids going in his IV, but I knew that those fluids weren't doing anything for his poor, hungry little tummy. 

Saturday we were excited to hear that he was ready to move out of the PICU and into a regular room for the rest of his stay! We had originally thought it would be closer to Monday before he got out of the PICU so it was fantastic news that he was ready to move so soon.