Heart Surgery

Colton will have surgery on July 14. It has been almost exactly 2 months since he was born. The surgeon decided that 1180 grams is close enough. Those few extra grams didn’t matter to him. He comes to tell us about the surgery and what they are going to do. We already know. We have been through this surgery once before with our oldest child. Only he wasn’t premature. What they will do is make the incision in his back. They go between the ribs, deflate the lung and move it out of the way so they can get to the aorta. They need to cut out the part of the aorta that has the muscle tissue in it that is causing it to narrow. They will also cut out the PDA valve that is being kept open and close the whole thing off. We ask the surgeon if he has ever performed this surgery on a baby this small before and he tells us no. In a strange way, that makes me feel a little better. Like he will try even harder to make it successful because it is his first.

Colton’s brothers have never met him. It is the year of the swine flu and the NICU is on lockdown. No siblings. I can’t send my baby into heart surgery without his brothers getting a chance to meet him in person. Our nurse helps us arrange to have them meet us in the hall on the way down to the OR. They finally get to meet the reason that mom and dad are gone all the time. We have our first family picture. Then we pass our baby to the surgeon and it is time to wait.
Our very first family picture. July 14, 2009

The surgery takes a long time. It takes almost 2 hours just to put all the lines in place because he is so darn small. But it was a success. I was prepared for what Colton would look like after surgery because of our experience with our older son, but it is still hard. But the surgery is a turning point for Colton. With his heart fixed we can feed him more. And within days we go from 8 pumps to zero. Colton is officially just a feeder/grower. He just needs to learn how to eat, and then grow.

This is the piece of aorta that they cut out. The surgeon brought it out to show us.

Colton after heart surgery.

The hospital staff helps us get transferred back to the hospital where he was born. It is closer to home and has a smaller NICU. We spend the last month of our NICU stay there. We finally get to experience the things that we have watched others experience. Colton moves to a crib. He moves from a high flow oxygen to a regular oxygen tube. He is gaining weight very slowly, but that is normal for him. He is eating from a bottle and nursing. No more feeding tube in his nose! We celebrate 100 days there with a cake and a little party. Colton tried some frosting, but didn’t like it much. Finally on day 108, we get to go home.

Our 100 day celebration cake.

Finally we are home as a family. August 31, 2009