Our Lil' Hero: One Step Closer!

Thursday, February 3, 2011

One Step Closer!

This afternoon Mason was moved from the CICU to the Surgical Unit, one step closer to going home!!! This morning he had a echo and that was the final step before moving him up here. The echo showed that his heart isn't pumping as strong as his pre-op echo but it isn't at an alarming level either, so he will have another echo in clinic after he is discharged. A reason for that is he has had high blood pressure post-op and they said they think that could have caused it so they bumped up his blood pressure medicine and are hoping that will do the trick to get it back where it was before. When we came in he was on 3/4 of a liter of oxygen and now he is only at 1/2! They wont try to ween him for awhile because the oxygen is good for them so it will probably be a month or so until they have us start to ween him off. He is starting to wake up a little more, he still is kinda out of it and hasn't smiled yet but every time he wakes up I see a little more of his personality starting to come back. Now that he is here we are no longer staying at the Ronald McDonald because we can sleep right in his room. His nurse tonight is so dang nice her name is Kellee and she can tell how exhausted I am so she told me when I go to bed to sleep and when Mason wakes up to eat keep sleeping and she will come in and feed him! I took her up on that offer and I actually just got Mason back to sleep so I am going to go ahead and do the same! Zac went back to Logan to go to school tomorrow but he left me his computer so I'll update again tomorrow!

3 comments:

Heather K. said...: YAY! I am so excited that he's up on recovery floor now! That is so great! I hope you get at least some rest sleeping in his room and hearing the beeping outside the doors. You'll be in the comfort of your own home before you know it with Mason! :); February 4, 2011 at 7:45 AM
Hillman's said...: Mollie, this is all great news! It sounds like he is handling things well. It sounds like you have a great support team with the nurses. It will be good for you to get some rest as well. I am sure it will be nice to be home. The comfort of your own bed and having your family under one roof! We love you guys, let us know if you need anything.; February 4, 2011 at 11:06 AM
Summer said...: GREAT NEWS!!!! WAY TO GO MASON :-); February 4, 2011 at 12:56 PM

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A little about Mason

This is a journey through Hypoplasic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS). Mason was born on October 1, 2010 as what we thought was a healthy normal baby boy. At 3 weeks old we found out when he was life flighted to Primary Children's Medical Center that he was born with an Unbalanced AV Canal Defect that caused him to have Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. He also was diagnosed with 2 Large ASD's a VSD, a CoArch of the Aorta, and a small leaky Mitral Valve. He had his first open heart surgery, the Norwood, in the end of October 2010. After surgery his chest was left open and they surgically closed it a few days later after the swelling went down. He had his second open heart surgery, the Glenn, in January 2011. He did great with recovery and got discharged 1 week later. We had him home for 1 day then he was rushed back to the hospital where they found he had a sternal infection and had to open him back up and wash out all the infection and he had a picc line placed for 6 weeks for antibiotics. He had a couple of heart caths during that time, and echo every 3-6 months, and eye surgery.
In February 2013 we sent his records to Boston to explore different surgical options for him. We found out he was a candidate for a surgery called the Staged Left Ventricle Recruitment to the BiVent. With this surgery it would grow his left ventricle to normal size and then give him normal circulation to hopefully avoid him having to have a heart transplant. (if we didn't go this route we have been told with his anatomy he would need a transplant in his teens). With the help of friends, family, and strangers we went to Boston where he had the first of hopefully only 2 surgeries. He had his 3rd open heart surgery in June and right now his heart is growing and conditioning to be able to handle the load of the work that a normal heart does. He is due to have his 4th open heart surgery in the first of 2014.