Caleb had to go in this past weekend (June 10) for a heart catherization (sp?). Dr. Cook, his cardiologist, had done an ECHO in April at our every six month check up and had thought that his left pulmonary artery was smaller than the right one. So, she showed it to the heart cath specialist who agreed and a date was set up to balloon the artery.
We decided to take all the kids with us because there hasn't been a normal weekend where we were all together for over a month. Chris was gone, I was gone, the kids were gone, it was kind of ridiculous. Pair that with the fact that I (ashleigh) had been struggling with some post-partum muck that had definitely upset our home life, and we thought another weekend not together, wasn't the best thing for the kids.
So, early Friday morning, we loaded up 3 sleeping kids into the van and headed for Winston-Salem. Chris stayed out with the kids while I took Caleb back to the holding area for people needing surgery ( i totally forgot what it's called)! While the other 3 ate breakfast, I wrestled Caleb in our holding cell while trying to give background medical info that I only know thru hear-say :) Finally they brought me the great little syringe full of stuff that makes him drunk. YAY!! A nurse walked him around until he was waving at everyone in a VERY drunken state saying his souther drawl "hi" and we decided that he was ready to go. So, we got on an elevator and headed to the cath lab. After riding on an elevator with the anesthiologist (sp?), they were best friends and so Caleb went right to her and off they went into surgery. Meanwhile, the other Andersens were fed and ready to settle in for however long they were going to work on him.
Here we are waiting in the cath waiting room. Creed (and Chris) slept like pros!
Cadence (and I) were way more into technology. She watched Wall-E and Toy Story 3 and part of Tinkerbell before the drs came out to say we were done. She also found the time to make this chicken for Caleb on Daddy's iPhone :) I played lots of Angry Birds but there is no photographic proof.
So, finally surgery was over and Dr. Williams (the heart cath guy) and Dr. Cook (our normal girl) came out to update us on what all they had done. They did balloon his left pulmonary artery and thankfully the balloon made it stay open so that no stint was necessary. They also saw that several other "collateral arteries" had formed off of main arteries so they coiled them off to make blood-flow stop going thru them and flow thru the main arteries instead. We weren't totally surprised by this because they had done the same thing (with the collateral arteries) the last time he had a heart cath right before his heart surgery. We were told to expect a low-grade fever due to all the metal coils they had put in and also to do everything we could to make him lay flat for the next 6 hours! right........ due to the fact that they had had to go in thru his neck and groin in a couple of different spots in order to get all the work done they needed to do. After a little more waiting, we were on our way to a room to get settled in for the night.
As promised, he was very uncomfortable coming out from being asleep and so Chris opted to take the other 2 to the movies while I got the job of trying to keep Caleb flat. Morphine became our friend because it helped him stay very still - and out of it.
Creed waiting to see Kung-Fu Panda in 3D
After the movie and some excitement trying to find a pizza place, they came back to the hospital where we all had dinner (our 6 hours were over and Caleb was hungry!) After dinner and a little hanging out while Creed got fed, Chris, Cadence, and Creed headed to the hotel and Caleb and I settled in for the night - kind of. More morphine later, I held him in the hospital bed while he tried to sleep on me, with 18 lovies, and a piece of pizza in his hand! He finally was asleep enough for me to lay him down about midnight and then of course, it was time for a vitals check. I love hospitals (sarcasm). So closer to one, we settled in for the night. Meds at 2:45 weren't very helpful for sleeping, and then at 6, we were up waiting to be discharged.
2 comments:
I enjoyed reading this post, though I didn't enjoy the reason you had to write it. Poor Shaunie. Still, I'm thankful that you were able to spend the time together, that he's home now and doing well, and that one day your kiddos will be able to look back on this post and know that you shared this experience together as a family.
Praise God for seeing our baby boy through another heart issue! Wish I could have been there to help:( The good part is he won't remember a thing! Love that sweet boy!
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