Henry is resting in his bed at HOME!!! We came home on Friday, hooray!!! His recovery has been just amazing...with the help from the surgeons' hands, care from the talented nurses and doctors, your prayers and most of all God, we have our blessed Henry home with us. We apologize for the delay in posting but this week has just gone by so quickly.
Dr. Wells, one of Henry's surgeons, came by on Thursday afternoon and was extremely pleased with Henry's progress and thought his recovery would be best at home. He is no longer requiring oxygen and is on minimal pain medicine (Tylenol as needed). His only regular medicines are Lasix and Zantac. So Friday morning the staff at CHLA completed all the discharge requirements and we were on our way by 2:30pm. CHLA is wonderful but Henry can rest and recover much more easily at home, no vitals at 4am, X rays or blood drawn after just falling asleep. :-) My mother, Steve and I are taking turns cuddling lil' Henry. He has determined that his favorite position is in our arms while we are standing and patting his back. It is so wonderful to see him smile and coo. He especially enjoyed his sponge bath this afternoon. It's nice and quiet in the house as his big brothers and dad are at a UCI basketball game. The boys were excited for us to come home as Ben exclaimed "they fixed Henry's heart, he can walk now".
As Steve had previously mentioned, the surgery went well. The first twenty-four hours of recovery from this surgery were the most challenging. His head was adjusting to the new pressure and because of this they were unable to keep him heavily sedated. Ughhh, I'm just glad he won't remember any of this. Luckily, they were able to extubate him that evening but he was still quite agitated from the pressure in his head, no food since 3am, two chest tubes and surgery itself. We were hoping to feed him sometime that night but they put him on something to help him breathe a bit more easier than just oxygen alone called Vapotherm but this hindered him from eating. Finally, he was able to eat late Tuesday morning. He was so frustrated that he kicked one of his chest tubes out - this got the doctors attention and approval to eat. We were able to remain in the CTICU until Wednesday evening as there were no beds in the recovery unit. This was our preferred place as Henry had one-on-one care in CTICU. Once Henry moved upstairs to 6 West, the other chest tube and central line were removed and oxygen was down to one-quarter liter. We knew we were one step closer to coming home. On Thursday, Henry was able to maintain his saturation levels (his preferred sats are 75-85, normal are 95-100), he fed well, the swelling from his head was minimal and he even started to smile and coo. It is just amazing how these babies recover from such a complex surgery.
CHLA is such an incredible place. Steve and I have learned so much this past year and thanks to the many, many doctors, nurses and specialist at CHLA who have comforted us during this journey. There are miracles every day in that hospital and we feel so honored that Henry could be one of those miracles.
We have some pictures to post from the big week - so check back in a few days after we get the camera adapter to download some photos. Until then, here are a few family shots from Christmas - it seems so long ago. What a new year!!!
