Surgery Tuesday

Well it's late and we need to be getting to bed, we've got to get up in 5.5 hours to finish packing our car to make the hour long drive to be at the hospital by 6am. We'll get checked in and Ethan will get prepped/anesthesized then surgery will begin around 8 or 8:30 am. The surgery shoud last until 12 or 1 pm. We'll post another update as soon as we here more tomorrow. In the meantime, thanks for all your prayers and support for us and Ethan!

Some thoughts...

So far Dan and I haven't really been putting too much thought into the fact that Ethan's 2nd surgery is quickly approaching. I don't know if we've just been in denial or what. But being back at UNC yesterday really made reality set in for me. I barely slept last night, thinking how the surgery is getting so close and how it's going to be strange not getting to hold and play with Ethan as much for the next couple of weeks as I have over these past 4 months of being home with him. He has stolen my heart and competes with his dad for being the love of my life. He looks so normal and healthy and it's hard to give him up and know that my healthy looking baby will soon be cooped up in the hospital, hooked up to tubes and wires once again. I know we're doing the right thing by proceding with the surgery but it's breaking my heart (I sit here trying to see the screen through my tears as I type). I've really been making the most of every single moment with Ethan the past week and I praise God multiple times a day for every single day I've had with him so far. This journey has helped me to not take life for granted and to give all the glory to God for blessings He's given us so far. For an HLHS baby, Ethan's been very healthy and his surgeon described him yesterday as a "perfect candidate" for this surgery - he's a good size and he hasn't outgrown his shunt yet so we have a lot going for us as we go into surgery!

We also praise God for the great surgeons, doctors and nurses and feel we couldn't be at a better hospital than UNC! Dan and I are at complete peace once again that God's will be done with Ethan during surgery, it's just the recovery time that I'm not looking forward to. Please pray for us to have peace about the recovery process and that we can get home again very soon. In the meantime, we're going to do our best to enjoy these last couple of days together as a family before Tuesday morning. The forecast is for 1-3" of snow this afternoon/evening so that's a bright spot to thank God for!

Pre-op appointment...

Well all looks well to continue as planned for surgery on Tuesday! The pre-op appointment at UNC Hospital took about 4 hours. Dan, unfortunately, had to work so it was just me and Ethan. I first met with the cardio-thoracic surgical nurse, and she drew out exactly what would be happening in the surgery. Basically, they will be removing the shunt that was placed during the first surgery and have the de-oxygenated blood coming from his head go straight to his lungs instead of traveling through his heart first. This will take a lot of work off his heart so he won't be burning calories as fast. This is will result in a quicker growth rate for Ethan and also higher oxygen saturations! For the visual learners who want to see the diagram, click here. I was encouraged by the surgeon today that he called Ethan a perfect candidate for the surgery and thinks things should go very smoothly! The surgery is only about 4 hours instead of 6 like last time so that's good too!

We'll do our best to keep everyone updated about Ethan's recovery process after surgery. Please just continue to keep us and the doctors in your prayers over the next couple of weeks! Thanks!

Pictures!

Well I know it's been a few weeks since we posted any pictures so here's a bunch - enjoy! With pictures like these of such a healthy looking boy, it makes it all the more harder to know we've just got a few days left until we have to give him back to the hospital for his 2nd heart surgery. We go for pre-op tomorrow morning, I'll post more details in the afternoon after the appointment. Please continue to keep us in your prayers over the next couple of weeks for the surgery and a speedy recovery. Thanks!

Ethan in one of his talkative moods!

Ethan sitting up by himself on the couch!

Mid-afternoon nap time

Bright-eyed and bushy tailed!

Ethan trying sweet potatoes for the first time!

Classic baby picture - sucking thumb and holding blankie!

In a good mood!

Another happy moment!

Ethan and his first stuffed animal - his hospital buddy that we
gave him to keep him company when we were not with him.

Funny Face!

Messy baby

So yesterday, I sat down to read the latest on baby Julianne (see link on right). Her current blog entry mentioned how they had a messy day with Julianne at their cardiologist office. Without getting too detailed, lets just say she had stuff coming out both ends and it got all over Julianne and her mom! Unfortunately, that has been the "norm" for them recently. Well we sort of had our own similar experience yesterday and today.

Poor Ethan, he just can't decide how hungry he is sometimes! We've been feeding him 6 bottles in a 24 hour period. These bottles have been only 4 oz. because they are still high-cal (26 cal/oz. as opposed to a normal formula bottle that is 20 cal/oz.) and still thickened with rice cereal to give even more calories per bottle. Well yesterday I experimented with his new bigger 9oz. bottle that I just bought. Basically I've done the math and a 4oz. 26 cal/oz. bottle is about the same as a 5 oz. bottle of 20 cal/oz. I tried giving him a normal 20 cal/oz. bottle without the rice cereal and he seemed to do ok for the first 3 oz. but then threw it all up. That was mess #1.

So I changed Ethan into his onesie that says "Automatic Sprinkler" - I bet you can guess what mess #2 was! Dan has prided himself in the fact that he hasn't been "automatically sprinkled" while changing Ethan's diaper so far. Well Ethan decided to change that record! Fortunately the leak was contained on the waterproof changing pad underneath him!

And shortly after the "sprinkler" accident, Dan fed Ethan his evening bottle - a regular 4 oz. high-cal/thickened bottle. All went fine with the feeding, but a few minutes later, Dan passed Ethan off to me to hold him for a bit. Ethan started sucking his fingers (he prefers them over his thumb) and gagged himself which made him throw up all over me for the 2nd time!

So then we decided it was bath time. He enjoys his baths, especially since I've started adding bubbles. He kicks and kicks in his baby bathtub over the sink, splashing soapy water all over the countertops - mess #4(not so bad!).

Then we jump forward to today - Ethan did great all day today, even for the few hours that his Mimi babysat him. But for his dinner, he took all 4oz. of his high-cal/thickened bottle and wanted more so we made him another 1oz. bottle. He seemed to do fine with that and STILL seemed hungry. So I let him sit in his bouncy seat for a little while to let his food digest and he started getting sleepy so I went ahead and gave him his nightly medicine and then he decided to throw up again. So I gave him a sponge bath, changed him into his jammies and he quickly drifted off to sleep so I took him upstairs to his crib for the night.

What an eventful 2 days! Well I hope you're able to get a little laugh out of this like we have! Oh, by the way, his cold is getting better and so is mine. I don't think the throwing up has anything to do with his stuffy nose. We're still on track for going to UNC next Friday, 1/18, for pre-op. If his cold is worse then we'll likely postpone the surgery, but I talked to his cardiologist office today and they said that he doesn't seem sick enough right now to postpone. That's good news because I just want to get this surgery over with and be back home once again.

We're sick :-(

Yes, it's true. Despite all our efforts to try to stay home and away from germs, somehow Ethan and I (Julie) are sick. Ethan's got a stuffy nose andI've got a bad cough. Last night Dan started to feel like he was getting a sore throat (something I never had with my cough) so we're praying he's taken enough Vitamin C to fight it off. Ethan and I have been sick since Thursday and with his surgery a little over 2 weeks away, we're at the critical point of trying to determine whether to hope he gets better and go ahead with surgery, or to postpone it a little bit longer. When we were at the hospital last month for his heart cath, Ethan's cardiologist said he needed to be healthy for at least 2 weeks - not even as much as a stuffy nose - prior to surgery so that the nasal congestion wouldn't complicate his breathing while on the ventilator for surgery. I really don't want to have to put off the surgery any longer, since I'm not looking forward to it in the first place, but we need to do what's best for Ethan.

So PLEASE pray for us to get well soon so we can go ahead and get this surgery over, if that's God's will for us at this time. Praise God that we have this flexibility to schedule it whenever we're not sick, instead of being in a critical state with his heart condition!

Solid Food

Ethan has found a new food - applesauce! Yes, that's right, last Thursday, 12/27 we started introducing solid foods and he seems to like the applesauce. To get him used to it and to make sure he's not allergic, we're only introducing one new solid food a week. This week, we'll try out bananas. We're so pleased that he likes to eat and that he's gaining weight steadily. He's currently 15 lb. 4 oz. (6.92 kg). We're hoping that the introduction of solid foods before his surgery will help him out with any eating issues post-surgery. It's hard to believe we're under 3 weeks now! Please keep us in your prayers as time gets close.

Pray for good health and for us to not go insane (especially me - Julie - since I don't have the "daily outing" of going to work like Dan does) as we do our best to keep Ethan quarantined at home so that he can stay healthy for surgery. Even as much as a stuffy nose could postpone the surgery and we just want to get it over with as soon as possible so we can have our little boy back home with us again.