Day 55

Day 55

Jack had his shunt and hernia surgeries today and all went well. To read more about the procedure click here.

We went in to the NICU bright and early this morning because Jack had his surgeries scheduled for 7:30. We wanted to be by his side before he was whisked away to the OR. His surgery was actually moved to 9:40 and unfortunately the NICU was closed to visitors so we couldn’t be with him for a very long time. So, we waited outside of the NICU for his crib to come wheeled down the hall. That happened pretty much right at 9:40 so we were prepared. We followed him down a couple of floors to the OR and wished him good luck.

His surgery lasted about four hours and we spent that time in the Family Waiting Room and took a few breaks to walk around a bit. At about halfway through, his neurosurgeon found us and gave us the great news that Jack’s shunt surgery was a success and there were no complications. We still had to wait until his hernia surgery was completed before we could see him. That call finally came and we learned that was without incident as well. What a relief! Now all we had to do was wait for Jack to be wheeled back up to his home in the NICU.

So there we sat for what seemed like a long time. Finally, we saw the elevator doors open and there was Jack. We yelled, “Is that Jack? Can we see him?!” And they said yes. There he was, wide awake and looking all around. We thought that he was going to have to be intubated for a few days. It was great to see him doing fine and without a tube in his mouth.

We gave his nurse about twenty minutes to get Jack off his temporary oxygen and monitoring system and then went into the NICU. He was still a very active boy at that point too. He was on a lot of caffeine to help stimulate his breathing and was quite alert. We also managed to get to his bedside when the doctors were making their rounds. They said he is looking very good. He was having some issues maintaining his oxygen levels and a few times they dropped rapidly. Actually more rapidly than we have ever seen. We were very nervous, but the nurse said that this sort of thing is normal after surgery. That kinda put our minds at ease. He also didn’t seem very comfortable soon after he returned. We’re sure he was in pain, but we just don’t know how much. The nurse soon gave him a pain reliever and that seemed to help.

We took a small break and went for a walk, hoping that Jack would be better when we returned. And he was! The nurse said that he only destabilized once compared to every three or four minutes when we were first with him. He also seemed much more relaxed. The medicine was doing it’s job.

We left earlier than normal since we were pretty exhausted and Jack fell into a deep sleep. We also didn’t want to disturb him because we know he needs his rest too.

We called in and spoke to his nurse about a half an hour ago and she said Jack is doing fine. He only had a few episodes and is in no noticeable pain. Once again he proved that he can not only overcome obstacles, but also exceed everybody’s expectations.