The Day After Surgery
We spent over 5 hours sitting in waiting rooms and the cafeteria today just waiting to go see Evan. First we couldn’t see him because his ‘roommate’ was coming back from the OR, then we couldn’t see him because they were doing a sterile procedure, then again, then it was shift change, then…. we finally got to see him. It was a very frustrating day until we got to see him.
He’s looking a little better. His color is better, but he’s still extremely swollen and full of fluids. His little stomach is so huge and bloated. It looks and feels like a balloon. He’s certainly more responsive today. When you touch him he reacts to it and if you stimulate him enough he’ll open his eyes a little bit. We saw this when the nurse (Erica) gave him a bath and changed his bedding and a bunch of his wires. After his bath she took his weight, 2.5 lbs heavier than he was before the surgery, just a day and a half ago. Whoa… that’s a lot of extra fluids for a little fella that only weighs 8.5 lbs to begin with. They have removed some and reduced others of his blood pressure medications as he’s doing better in that regard. They also increased his diuretics by quite a bit. It’s going to take a few days for the swelling and fluids to go away. Hopefully that reduction in inflammation will help alleviate some of the other issues that are going on. His breathing is better but still not good enough to remove him from the vent and his ventricle is still not pumping without being triggered by the pacing machine. He’s not out of the woods by any means but he’s making small steps everyday and that’s all that we can ask of him.
I’ve only been a dad for a week and you might not think that it would be possible to ‘miss’ changing a diaper, but I do. I miss changing his diapers, and feeding him, holding him, interacting with him, hearing the noises he makes (even cries), I miss it all. Seeing him in the state that he’s in is difficult and I can’t wait for the day when I am looking in my rear view mirror and see him in his car seat and Ann Arbor disappearing behind us.
Keep on kicking butt little buddy.
