Saturday, January 31

As always, there was a change of plans in regards to closing Caden's chest. When Greg went to the hospital late morning, Caden's nurse informed him that they were going to close his chest that day. Greg called me to let me know so that I could get over to see Caden before they did it. The nurse said they were going to do it between two other surgeries so they weren't exactly sure of the time. When I got there, she told me they had just gotten word that they were going to wait and do it after the second surgery. And, then it was possible that they still might wait until Sunday but she promised to call me when they were ready to do it.

At lunchtime, our good friends, Ryan & Suzanne and their children as well as Suzanne's parents and sister all came to visit for my birthday. We had a nice lunch with some good cake. In addition, our church sent me some delicious Shari's Berries (fancy chocolate dipped strawberries) and a beautiful bouquet of flowers.

In the afternoon I took Suzanne and her mom over to the hospital to see Caden. The nurse said she thought they would be doing the chest closure in another couple hours and said she would call me before they started. Not too long after returning to the Ronald McDonald House, the nurse called to let me know they were going to be starting the procedure in about 30-45 minutes. So, I went back over to the hospital but by the time I got there, they had already started. They turn the CVICU room into an operating room and close it all off instead of taking Caden to the OR. So I waited at the hospital until it was over. The nurse called me and put Dr. Reddy on the phone.

Dr. Reddy told me the chest closure went well and that Caden's vitals had stayed the same when they held the chest together. We were told they would hold the chest together for a few minutes to see how his body responded to the additional pressure. Apparently he handled it well because then they stitched him closed. We had been warned ahead of time that after closing the chest, he might deteriorate slightly and they expected that and were ready for it. But they expected him to recover from the initial setback fairly quickly. Dr. Reddy also told me that during the code on Wednesday, Caden's good lung had taken a bit of a beating and therefore wasn't as “pristine” as it had been prior to that. So, because of that, they were planning on letting him rest and recover for the next four-five days before even thinking about extubating. In the meantime, they would wean the ventilator rates down and work toward that goal, but they wouldn't push him too much.

After surgery today, Greg and I got to go in to see Caden for about five minutes before shift change and they kicked us out. We are so glad everything went smoothly and hope it continues to do so. Later in the evening, we went back and spent some more time with Caden before finally coming back to RMH and falling asleep from exhaustion. Thank you to all you prayer warriors who are fighting for our son. There are more people than we know praying for him and we are so appreciative. We'll keep you posted on his progress today. Hopefully he's taking some baby steps forward.