First Week of Recovery

Well Matt rented a car to get back to Dallas last Wed to catch his flight home to Buffalo. Colton and Steph have been staying at her parents house in Abilene. Colton has recovered very well and is back to himself.
While Matt was still here we went to the Dr. and saw our first sonogram of the baby. The due date is May 24th and everything is looking good. We will have our next appointment when the family is together in Buffalo.

Sunday Afternoon

Well while waiting for the discharge papers Colton decided it was best if he took a nap at the hospital before we left. Once he woke up we went back to the hotel and stayed one more night before heading out of Dallas. We arrived in Abilene at 1:30 today and are just relaxing and enjoying Wingstop for dinner. Matt is returning to Buffalo on Wednesday while Colton and I stay in Texas until his follow-up apt on October 24. Thank you for all of your support during this time.

Day 4 afternoon

Dr. Laird just came in and told us that Colton was well enough to go home today. Shortly after that they pulled his last IV, and Colton fell asleep. He is naping now. We are still waiting for the discharge paperwork so we can get out of here.

Thanks for all of your support through this tough time for us. It has result has turned out good and we will keep everyone posted on his progress.

Day 4 morning

All is still going great. Colton and I were able to sleep through the night. He fell asleep around 8pm, and we woke up around 7am. The nurse last night as well as the nurse this morning both said that they thought that he would e released today!!!! They are just waiting to hear from the doctor, as he has final say. Colton has been walking all around his new area. He has not had any medication given too him other then his normal heart medication in about a day now. He is chipper and feeling good, he is still a bit uncomfortable when getting up and sitting down. I guess theat should be expected.....

Day 3 afternoon

Colton has moved out of the ICU, and is in the step down unit where he will be for a couple of days. They have now taken out all of his lines except 1. He is in good spirits. Dr. Laird was in just a bit ago and again stated that he is doing very well and that he was very happy with the outcome of the surgery. We are now watching movies and watching Colton play with his new toy laptop.

Day 3 morning

Last night was good, except for the fact that Colton is apparently not a fan of sleeping. Oh well. He is doing great, they are currently removing all items from his body, so that he can be moved out of ICU. He is not happy with the tape coming off from around all of the IV's. He was just delivered his breakfast abd he ate really well.

Dr. Laird(Cardiologist) was in yesterday evening and told Steph that after reviewing Coltons echo post surgery to his echo from 6 months ago, he was extremely satisfied with the result of the surgery. This was great to hear as they were unsure of the impact immediately after surgery.

Dr. Mendeloff(Surgeon) was in this morning and said that everything looked great and that we should be out of here within the next couple of days!

End of day 2

Colton is doing very well and is acting more and more like himself. He has now been up for about 6 hours straight and is fighting sleep just as he always has. He is enjoying watching movies and giving everyone a hard time. All of his IV ports are still connected to him, but there is nothing hooked to any of them, so he is on his own at this point with the exception of whatever the nurse gives him periodically. The nurse said that around 5 am tomorrow will be removing the drain tube as well as all of the IV's, and preparing him for release to the step down unit. We should be down there in the morning. Hopefully he will fall asleep soon..........

The Morning After

Colton did well last night he allowed me to get about 5-6 hours of interupted sleep. He was able to start drinking water and apple juice throughout the night. This morning he has made great progress and they have been removing things from him all morning. They have taken off his forced oxygen, all of his IV fluids and 1 of his heart medications. He is still receiving 1 heart medication, and 1 medicine for agitation(which the nurse said they would be removing shortly). He told the nurse that he was hungry and wanted some grapes, she told him that he would be able to eat at lunch time.

Dr. Mendeloff (surgeon) was in this morning with his team and said that everything looked great. He also stated that we should be moving out of the ICU by tomorrow morning.

Dr. Laird (Cardiologist) came in shortly after and reviewed the echocardiogram that had just been done and told us that it looked great. He wanted to be able to compare it to the the last visit that he had with Colton, but that it looked much improved and he was very excited with the result of the surgery. He said it appeared to be a mild leak as apposed to a severe leak. Agai Gret news.

Thank you for everyones continued support.

In ICU

Colton is doing well tonight. He has been sleeping now for over an hour for the first time since being in ICU, which is great as he is in need of rest. Earlier he was interacting with me quite a bit. Mostly frustrated and annoyed that he was unable to move very much, as well as he was asking for chocolate milk and chocolate ice cream. All I was able to do was provide him with a little water on a sponge on a stick. He was OK with that, but let me know that was not what he was wanting. Although the interaction is nice I am encouraging him to sleep, but if you know Colton you know that he is pretty stuborn when he knows what he wants and he is not much a fan of sitting still! 

Surgery Evening

We were able to get in and see our little guy at 6:15 before they do their evening lock down from 6:30-8. He looks alot better this time after surgery than last time. He is on 1/2 the number of meds and 1/2 the dosage also compared to last time. We were told that he sat right up trying to figure out what was going on while in recovery before he moved to ICU. Needless to say the anesthesia doctor gave him more meds. While in the ICU he wakes up every once in a while and is asking for something to drink. He really asked for chocolate milk and chocolate ice cream,but per docs orders nothing til morning. Matt is staying the night as he is the calm one of the family while I get some sleep. Our little boy is a true fighter!!! More good news tomorrow.

Surgery

Colton is done with surgery and has just arrived in the Pediatric ICU. Surgery went well and he is doing good. The surgeon said that he was able to fix the valve, although not as well as he had hoped as it was very abnormal. Prior to the surgery had a severe regurgatation in the valve, and coming out he stated it was more of a moderate regurgatation. He did state that the last echocardiogram that he did as Colton was about to be moved was better and more encouraging, so we will wait to see how it progresses through the next 24 hours. We should be able to get in and see him within the next hour. Thanks for everyone's thoughts and support.

Pre Op

Colton had his pre op appointment this morning at 11am and we were done by 12:30. Everything went very well. They drew blood,took chest x-rays and explained to him what they would be doing tomorrow. His surgery is scheduled for 12pm tomorrow and we have to be there at 10am. The surgery is expected to take about 5 hours.

Roadtrip

We have just arrived from our 1567 mile road trip across the country. It was a lot of fun, we were able to stop and visit with family and friends on the way. We probably could have gone without the stop at the Horseshoe in Shreveport. OUCH!! Colton was excited to see the deer in the middle of the road in Columbus as well as Mississippi. Steph was excited to yell at me for driving too fast while the deer were crossing the road. Overall a fun trip. We are now in Dallas, in our hotel room. We will be taking Colton in for his pre-op Tuesday at 11am. It is good to be able to go out and get some real fajitas, and Mexican food.

1st time to Blog

As everyone knows we are preparing for our journey south to Texas for Colton's heart surgery. We decided this might be easier to do instead of making phone calls during and after surgery.