Post Op Day 2

We got to the hospital a little later today because we had a hard time getting ourselves up and ready. But when we got there, Caden was in a really good mood. The child life specialist was there with him playing with him and talking to him about the new room he would move to in the other unit (assuming a bed opened up). He was smiling and happy and doing very well. The nurse told us he had a great night and slept well.

"Cheeeeese!"

The doctors and nurses want Caden to be more active, so we moved him into a chair beside his bed so he could sit up straighter and try out a new position. He wasn't impressed with the move and wanted to be back in the bed. But he ended up staying there for several hours and watched movies. I'm not sure how many times he's watched “Cars” and “Finding Nemo” in the past two days, but it's a LOT!

 Sitting in a chair for the first time after surgery

When the doctors finally rounded close to noon, there were just two of them and it was pretty casual. Caden is doing so well they didn't have much to say. They said they are treating him as if he was already in the step down unit in terms of care. He certainly doesn't need ICU status but there were still no beds available so he was staying where he was. They did tell us we were first on the list to move when something opened up. And they asked if he had been up on his feet at all yet. We told him he hadn't but that it would be hard due to the chest tube. They said they would get someone from surgery to come see if that could be pulled today or not. Other than that, there was nothing else they needed to do for us. That is so surreal considering after Caden's first surgery as a baby, they would spend up to half an hour rounding on him and it was usually with a much larger team of people!

Caden with Nurse "PB"

When I asked the cardiologist later in the day what the surgeons had decided about the chest tube, he said they wanted to make sure Caden was up and on his feet a little before they did it. He said sometimes the chest tube isn't draining much blood while the patient is lying down or sitting in a chair. But when they stand up, sometimes some will dump out. So the surgeons wanted him standing up a little at least before they pulled the tube. As soon as I found that out, Greg and the nurse and I all got Caden on his feet for a couple minutes although he was not amused about this! A couple cc's of blood came out, but not much. The nurse passed that information on to the cardiologist.

Standing for the first time since surgery

Around 3:00 pm the surgeon came by and said he was ready to pull the chest tube and the pacer wires. He had the nurse give Caden a dose of morphine to help take the edge off the pain when he did that. He came back about 10 minutes later and pulled them all out. It was horrible for me to watch. I don't deal well with that kind of thing anyway, but the hardest part for me was listening to Caden scream. He kept pleading with the surgeon to stop. “That hurts!” “Please stop!” “Don't do that anymore!” It just broke my heart to hear him crying like that. But as soon as the surgeon took his hands off him, Caden calmed down really fast and seemed fine. He was pretty quiet for awhile after that. He just wanted to watch “Clifford” and be left alone.

 Chest tube and pacer wires are OUT!

Before surgery, I told Caden he would be able to have a wagon ride in the hospital when he was feeling up to it. So, I asked him if he was ready to take the ride. He smiled and nodded so I asked the nurse if we could do that. She called and had a wagon brought to the room and got everything ready to go. But she has two patients to keep an eye on and there was nobody available to watch her other patient while we went out with the wagon. So we had to stay in the corridor right outside Caden's room. That way she could stand in the doorway and keep an eye on both patients at the same time. Greg pulled the wagon and I followed along with the IV pole. But after we had gone down and back one time Caden started crying and said he was done. We think the movement of being in the wagon made it hard for him to steady himself since it hurts to use his core muscles. Poor baby! :( So we took him back into his room and moved him back to bed. At least he can say he had his wagon ride.

As the day went on it became clear they wouldn't be moving Caden to the step down unit today either. But the doctors told us during rounds that if that continued to be the case, they would just end up discharging him straight from the CVICU. So I guess we will see what happens with that.

After Greg and I ate dinner, we were able to let Kyler and Caden FaceTime. They haven't seen each other since Monday which is when they last did FaceTime. They didn't talk to each other long but it was really fun for both of them. Caden told Kyler about his wagon ride and it seemed to be a good memory for him. And he told him about watching all the movies. But he didn't mention anything about the surgery or having any pain which I thought was interesting. Kyler told Caden he had been seeing stories of him on Facebook which I thought was pretty funny. But Grandma has been showing Kyler the pictures and other posts I've made about Caden so he would know how he was doing. I'm glad they got to talk. I know they miss each other!

Talk to Kyler on FaceTime

Right before the end of the shift, we said goodbye to Nurse Amy, Caden's primary nurse during the 5 weeks he spent in CVICU as a baby. It was good to see her again and we had to get pictures with her to show Caden later on. We have pictures of her holding Caden as a baby and even though she wasn't holding him this time around, it is fun to see how much he has changed in the last four years even though she looks just the same! ;)

Good to see you Amy!

After shift change we went back into Caden's room and he was completely sacked out! I guess he was exhausted from his day. We sat around for a little while and finally decided we would take off since he was asleep anyway. So we packed up and whispered our goodbyes to him and started to walk out and then he woke up! We stayed around for a few minutes as we helped him get settled in with the new night nurse. Then we told him good night and we would see him in the morning. When we left he was watching “Finding Nemo” for the 361^st time! We will see what tomorrow holds in terms of Caden. But he is doing so incredibly amazing and I am so proud of him!

Sacked out!