3 Days Post-Surgery Post

 After crazy days of stress and pre-surgery, it's kinda nice to slow down and say that there really hasn't been much to post about. Dom came out of surgery and is doing his best to recover. He was able to be moved out of ICU on Wednesday as planned, and came to the regular pediatric cardiac ward. We really lucked out and got a private room (prior to this stay we had always been in semi-private aka one roommate on the ward), which has made the choice to stay overnight with Dom super easy. Anywhoo, Dom slept a lot of Wednesday because moving units is exhausting. Not only did he kinda get jostled around while physically moving him to a new unit, but then there are [what seems like] a million people that need to meet him and us because they are all part of his care team and they all need to get to know him asap so they can provide the best care... but just makes for a very busy day. The night was also a struggle, between Dominic waking up repeatedly and his nurses needing to check vitals and give medication throughout the night, neither of us slept well.

Thursday morning, Roland came over from the hotel to be there for rounds (only one parent is allowed to stay overnight) and shortly before he arrived the team took out Dominic's main chest drainage tube. The tube was not really draining much anymore, plus he still had the smaller tube, and they also thought it would make Dominic more comfortable. I must say that I had to agree after the fact, because Dominic really just slept most of the day on Thursday. I myself also went back to the hotel after rounds (when the doctors, nurses, and other parties involved in Dom's care, like physio, nutrition, etc meet with us to talk about his plan moving forward from that day) , did some laundry and had a super hard crash nap. But definitely not a bad day. Although Dom himself was super tired a lot of positive things were coming back about his recovery. Numbers were coming back positive, his colour was good, drainages low... he just needed to get back to being himself.

Thursday night was a much better sleep for both of us and Dominic woke up in the morning seeming far more like himself. I even got a smile out of him! His other drainage tube was removed as were 2 of his IV lines (still has 1 more), he went for another couple assessments today, a chest x-ray and a lung profusion scan, both came back with happy results and the first serious talks of being discharged, possibly over the weekend, took place. Dom was awake for much more of the day and watched Peppa Pig on his iPad A LOT. He was also asking for cuddles with his mamma, which were dearly missed and I was happy to oblige. 

It seems strange to be talking about coming home already after Dominic just had MAJOR heart surgery, but it's incredible how quickly he's recovered. If someone told me a week ago that we would only be in Edmonton for only ONE WEEK start to finish, I would have called them crazy, but now here we are with the distinct possibility we could be on our way home soon. Part of me feels like I should be nervous about bringing him home already, but I'm really not. Thankfully I have the time off to help him recover and we do have a fantastic Cardiology Team back in Saskatoon if we need any help. I feel like we've got this!

So keep your fingers crossed for us! We may be home within the next couple days!

Surgery Day

 These days are always the toughest. As much as we are prepared for them, and know it's for the best, and know he is/will be in the best, most capable hands, there is still a lot of stress

Thankfully, Dom and I both got good sleeps last night (Not so much for Roland, he tends to be a big ball of stress at times like these). Dom was bright eyed and bushy tailed before my alarm went off, which frankly, wasn't ideal. It's better when he sleeps right up until it's time to get ready, then he's distracted by getting ready and we're out the door before he realizes he's hungry. But what did he ask for as soon as he realized I was awake this morning? Breakfast. 🙄😅 So we distracted him with some water (allowed until we left for the hospital) until we were ready to go.

Dom was a total rockstar. Thankfully, we only needed to be to the admission unit 50 minutes before his surgery. So the wait wasn't too long and Dom was cool with it. Once we were on our way to the OR, he rode on the stretcher without issue and just made sure he knew where Roland and I were at all times. I got to walk him directly into the OR and he was so calm the whole time. This little man amazes me. 

About 4 hours after we sent him to the OR, we were notified he was out of surgery and his surgeon came and talked to us and told us that everything went as expected, there were no complications and everything looked great! SUCH a relief to hear those glorious words.

About an hour after that we were able to go see him in his room in the ICU, he was still asleep but he looked great. In true Dom fashion, as soon as he did wake up, he immediately tried to sit up in bed. However, the medical prefer to take things a bit slow after Open Heart Surgery (go figure), so he needed to be a bit sedated until his breathing tube could be removed but Dom kept sitting up as soon as he was even slightly awake, SO what could they do? Moved up the time to extubate him! And he rocked it. No going back. Also in true Dom fashion, was asking for drinks. Once again, staff were hesitant, but we gave it a try by just getting sponges wet and letting him suck the moisture off and he took about 60ml that way. Crushing it! I mean... he did have a little bit of a setback later when we did the same thing again and he threw up... but I have it on good authority that it happens to pretty much everyone on "anesthetic tummy". So I'm taking it in stride.

I've been told he's been slated to move off of ICU tomorrow assuming he has no setbacks and there is room on the cardiac recovery floor. So here's hoping!

All around good day... still stressful and exhausting, but it couldn't have gone better. :) 

Pre-op Day!

 So we're back in Edmonton, checked in to the same hotel we stayed in last time, got settled last night, and then we were off to Dominic's Pre-admission Clinic today.

Not gunna lie, it was a long, tedious day. Dom's not a big fan of long days. It also helps if he gets to move around frequently, but no such luck today. If anyone had asked (which they didn't, not that they should have, they don't have time for that) having him move back and forth from the preadmission area would have helped bit, but they are far too efficient for that. We sat in Preadmission from about 7:00am until 10:00am meeting with multiple people that have some interaction with Dominic throughout his stay at the hospital. His Surgeon, Fellowship Students, an Anesthesiologist, Physiotherapist, a lady from a program called Child Life... then procedures... blood work was done in the clinic so he was grouchy for that one, chest X-ray (he was a champ for, probably because he finally got to see a different room), he was a monster for his Echocardiogram, because he again had to sit still, plus it was getting close to lunch (we're still functioning on Saskatoon time, so 11am was more like noon and Dommers gets HANGRY), then his EKG and I could not wait to get the eff outta dodge. 

But we are now all ready for tomorrow! We got to keep our First Case spot, which means we have to be at the hospital at 6:30am for them to come get him at about 7:20. This is the best scenario, in my opinion. Dom isn't allowed to eat anything after midnight and can only have clear fluids in the morning, so the less time he spends hungry the better it is for everyone (see the above HANGRY comment).

Surgery is said to take about 4 hours from when we leave him to when we can see him again, but sometimes things take longer. I'll update a full post later in the day (hopefully).

Wish us luck! Keep sending those good vibes!

Here we go again...

 Hello...

So... this is kinda awkward...

I keep saying I'll be back. And I have great intentions of being back, but at one point or another I end up losing my drive, or life gets too busy, or I don't feel strongly enough to do a post about anything... things like that.

I honestly thought that Covid would give me the time to read and get back into the blog groove... but NOPE!

However...

It's now the time again that we will be heading to Edmonton to replace the conduit that Dom had put in when he was born. He has now outgrown his baby one and we're going to get a bigger one put in for my strong boy (If this sounds like I'm downplaying it to make it seem like it's just switching out a lego part, I am... I'm in a bit of denial and I have already cried and I'm freaking out a bit... so just let me live in this 'it's not a huge major open heart surgery' bubble for just a bit longer)

I did feel that posting on the blog during Dominic's tough times was very theraputic, as well as functional in letting everyone know what was going on with him. I think the biggest traffic I ever got on my blog was when Dom was first born and we were in Edmonton for his heart surgery, so it's a good way for people to know what's happening, without being concerned about ASKING what's happening with him. Not that I mind! Ask away! But sometimes... it's just easier. 

Dominic's surgery is on MARCH 8, 2022. He will have his pre-op assessments done the day before, so we will be heading out on Sunday to get to Edmonton. 

Wish us luck!!