Evan loves his bear. from William Wood on Vimeo.
Tag: UofM
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Setbacks
The past few days have been a little rougher for us. Both Bill and I are beginning to feel the strain of doing this routine over and over. It’s not like we haven’t been enormously blessed and have had such a smooth experience thus far, but we are entering a lull and need to get over this hump for the sake of our sanity. We’ve heard from other families how they have been here for 4 months, home for 4 days, and then right back in the hospital. I cannot imagine what it must be like for those long-term families when we’ve only been here for 2 weeks. We just can’t wait to walk into the next room to pick up our boy free from wires and tubes instead of driving 20 minutes for tethered snuggling sessions. Thanks for all the words of encouragement – they really help to lift our spirits.
Evan has been moved to “moderate care” and it is actually quite comfortable and less crowded in there. He is struggling with eating, which he never really did before. We think the vent tubes scratched up his mouth and throat and has just made swallowing painful for him. When bottle feeding, he often makes these horrific gagging faces and looks like he is in pain. We’ve asked for some pain meds but it will just take time for the tenderness to go away. In the meantime, he is being tube fed and has been tolerating that well, but he is throwing up more and never did that before. His food is supplemented to make sure he is getting enough calories. His metabolism is faster because his heart has to work harder so he needs the extra calories to make sure he gains weight. Please pray he can take his bottles so we can get rid of his NG tube.
Evan is still in complete heart block. On his own, his ventricles do not get the signal from his atrium and therefore do not beat fast enough. His heartrate should be 140-160 beats/min. Currently, on his own his ventricles pace at 58 beats/min yesterday and 72 beats/min today. That isn’t going to work. The doctors will not let him leave the hospital with complete heart block without getting a pacemaker first. They like to give kids 10-14 days after surgery to give time for swelling and edema to go down. The docs will make their decision Friday or Monday and schedule it for next week. It will probably give us an additional 5ish days in the hospital.
Dr. Hirsch stopped by today to talk to us about it and she actually said that he had his own beat in the OR and it wasn’t until bringing him to the ICU that he developed heart block. So there is hope it can come back. Please pray for this.
Evan continues to poop like a champ but now he has diaper rash. Poor buddy! We now slather a super thick cream on his buns so
hopefully it will go away soon. And daddy fell victim to the first pee spray yesterday. Frankly I’m surprised it has taken this long.Maybe it is just me because I am new to this or maybe it is a change that happens between 1 and 2 weeks old, but lately when looking at Evan his eyes cross pretty frequently. Maybe his vision is improving and he is trying to focus?? Fellow parents, is this normal?
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Evan – 3 Days Post Surgery
Today has been and continues to be a very big day for the little guy. It’s only been three days since his surgery and he’s doing so well. Here’s is a rundown of what has happened today.
- Chest tube removed
- Catheter removed
- Epinephrine stopped
- Dopamine stopped
- Down to lowest setting on milrinone
- Lasix (diuretic) continues to be dialed down, only every 6 hours instead of a constant drip.
- Lowered dosage of morphine (so he’s not so groggy and ‘lazy’ when it comes to breathing on his own)
- Respiratory therapist performed 2 ‘sprints’ on him last night in which he breaths on his own for an hour and the see how he does. He did great!
- At about 2:30pm this afternoon they removed him from the ventilator entirely and took the tube out of his throat!!! A very happy baby and parents.
- Tonight after 9PM we are going to attempt to bottle feed him. He has not had any food since midnight on Thursday.
We left the room for the removal of the vent tube in case there were any issues, we didn’t want to be in the way. We were told that he did very well and didn’t cry at all. The nurses said that he did manage a few dirty looks at them and the doctors. I think he gets that from his daddy.Since he’s had the tube out he has been a much happier baby but I think that’s running thin. Now that the morphine continues to be pulled back he’s more alert and is certainly feeling hungry. He was awake and looking around for a good couple hours after the tube came out and full of dirty looks and silent cries.
He has been urinating and pooping all day and his stomach is finally looking closer to normal. The diuretics are certainly doing their job, the poor nurses had to change his bedding 3 times yesterday because the diaper was…. well… inadequate.
One of the cardiologist’s stopped by and asked if we had any questions and we nailed him with lots of questions about complete heart block, his current pacing, how long do they ‘wait and see,’ what the possible treatment options are if it doesn’t come back, etc. Evan is still in complete heart block as Sarah mentioned in yesterday’s post. No progress has been made on that front since the surgery. Hopefully the tissues will start communicating with each other over the next several days. They will continue to monitor him and if there’s still no progress after a couple of weeks then the only recourse would be another surgery and a pacemaker implanted in the space above his stomach. We’re hopeful that this will not need to happen but it is a known possible outcome for babies with l-TGA since the nerves of their heart are often in weird configurations because of the ventricles and arteries switching places during development.
All in all an excellent day for our little guy. Sarah and I are very confident that he’ll have no issues feeding tonight and we’ll be holding that beautiful boy in our arms again in no time.
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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.
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Missing Evan… 
We have not been able to get back and see Evan today. The big room that he is in also has 3 other patients and one of them has had issues today so they are performing some procedures right there in the room. When this is going on there can be no visitors for the other patients in that room. I feel bad for the baby that’s having the issues and her family but I am missing my boy. They tell us he is doing fine, which is great, but this waiting room is L-A-M-E. He has been weaned from one of his medications but he’s still got a lot of others and lots of swelling, blood pressure issues, breathing issues, and his ventricle is still not pumping on its own. They say that these things are normal and can be caused by all the swelling and surgery that he’s had. We’ll keep watching it and hope that it corrects itself as his body heals. -
Evan after surgery
Dr. Hirsch came to talk to us at about 1:45pm and said that it went as expected. There was a little bleeding that they had to take care of in the OR but nothing out of the ordinary and nothing to cause concern, it just took some time. During the surgery she completed all of the things as planned and went ahead and inserted the cardiac IV line under the skin and into the heart. She told us that Evan would be wheeled up to the PCTU at around 2:30 and by 3:30 we should be able to see him. The unit was not ready for us at 3:30 and we had to wait until about 4:15pm. Our time with Evan was cut short (we got about 30 minutes with him) as a patient in the space next to Evan was being brought in and they do not allow people in the room during these times. We were told to come back in an hour. Since then we have spent some more time with him, talked to his doctor’s and nurses, and gotten a slightly better understanding of what is going on.
In general Evan is doing well and the doctor’s and nurses are watching him very closely as his body responds to the surgery. A couple things that they are keeping a close eye on and working proactively to remedy are 1) his eyes are dilated and non-responsive, we are told that this is a typical reaction to atropine usage during surgery (atropine is used to help the nodes of the heart fire) and should wear off in a day or so. It can also be a sign of something more serious so they will perform an ultrasound on his brain to make sure that everything is ok. 2) His belly and chest cavity are filling with fluids due to the surgery, this is a normal reaction but the excess fluids need to be drained one way or another. Excess fluids cause undue stress on the heart and lungs. Typically, this is done through medications like lasix where the fluids will be processed by the kidney and excreted as urine. This also will take several days to remedy. He’s on many medications and has many tubes and wires all over him. He’s obviously on medication for pain, he’s feeling nothing. He’s also on medication for blood pressure, swelling, fluid retention, and vasal dilation (expanding and stretching of veins/arteries). As the days progress the medications and assistance from machines will be turned down as Evan gains the ability to do them on his own. Right now he is heavily sedated, he does not respond to our touch, or move on his own, he’s completely and utterly out of it. Tonight they will do no weaning from the meds or equipment and just give his body time to adjust.
CAUTION:
I am going to describe the scene in much more detail (and pictures) on a separate page. Some people may consider these graphic and be bothered by them. If you want to see the pictures and read the detail you can go to this webpage. -
YAYYYYYYY. First surgery done!
Just got the news from the nurse practitioner. Who’s the happiest daddy in the world? That’s me! We were told that he’s off the heart and lung bypass machine and his heart is doing it all on it’s own. His little heart started right back up and is kicking hard… good boy! It will be an hour or so in the OR while they monitor his blood pressure since his blood gets thinned during the procedure. Then he will head up to the 5th floor where we will spend the next week or so in the pediatric cardiac intensive care unit (PCTU). It’s still going to be a couple hours or more until we get to see him. Once he gets up to the floor they need to hook him up to all their monitors, ventilator, and get his meds going. It’s going to be a couple days until we can hold him but just being able to see him and touch him will make mommy and daddy so much better. Dr. Hirsch will be stopping by the waiting area once she leaves surgery to definitively tell us how it all went. Words cannot possibly express how relieved I am or the gratitude that I have for Dr. Hirsch and the entire U of M team of doctors, nurses, and staff. I might even get a U of M shirt before we leave.
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Quick Update #2
Short and sweet – We just got briefed on Evan’s progress and so far everything is looking great! Big boy is doing awesome and continues to kick ass in the OR!
Dr. Hirsch is now working on installing the BT shunt that will connect the subclavian artery to his pulmonary atery. She is also going to install an IV that will lead directly to his heart to improve administration of medications as well as monitor his blood pressure continuously. It will stick out of his skin but will be better for him after the surgery. She has already completed the Damus-Kaye-Stansel (DKS) procedure, which combines his pulmonary artery and aorta. She also whittled away at his atrial septal defect (ASD) to make sure it is sufficiently large that it will not close on its own. She has also tied off his patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) because it is not needed for blood flow to the lungs, now that he has a shunt.
When the anesthesiologist was carrying Evan away and Will and I started crying she said, “I know… I have your heart in my arms. I promise we will take good care of him.” I have no doubt they are and that he will recover beautifully. Everyone here is awesome and we are so fortunate to have such a facility close to home. This is the first step to going home and hopefully that is only a couple weeks away. 🙂
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Quick update
They have taken him back to the operating room. We probably won’t have any updates for at least a couple hours. Here with Sarah and I are my mom (Terri Seiwell), Sarah’s mom, dad, and sister (Nancee, Phil, and Kate Wood). Everyone here at U of M is amazing, we’re so happy that such an amazing hospital is so close to home. Here are a few pictures from this morning including the surgeon that will be fixing Evan’s heart today, Dr. Jennifer Hirsch.
If nothing else updating the website keeps my mind off of what is going on…it’s very therapeutic.
Evan’s Surgeon Dr. Hirsch 
Anesthesiologist 
Mommy loves you 
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Pre-Surgery
Just sitting with the little guy getting in our last cuddle time before his big day. He’s so amazingly peaceful this morning especially for not having been fed his least two meals. I’ll be posting here as we hear news throughout the day. Please send all your positive thoughts and prayers Evan’s way today.
