Henry was in good spirits before his procedure. Admitting and pre-op went smoothly. Before taking him to the cath lab, they gave him a dose of Versed (a sedation drug) that made him very loopy. He was very fascinated making Elmo out of the Play-Doh finger puppet mold. The nurses did a good job at distracting him too as they rolled him to the cath lab. He enjoyed finding the monkey and other animals on the hallway wall mural.
In Pre-Op
The cath itself went well. Henry was in the cath lab for about two and half hours. They had to put a catheter in his groin and his neck. His heart looked just as they expected. They had to balloon both of his superior Vena Cavas due to narrowing from the Glenn procedure. We were with Henry by 11:30am in the recovery room. Due to ballooning, they wanted us to stay overnight. Initially, we were okay with this as his prior cath did not go as smooth and I was not ready to go home so quickly then. However, this time after the sedation wore off and a few hours of trying to keep a two and half-year old in a crib, we wanted to go home.
Henry in the recovery room (thanks Coach Shannon for the blanket)
Henry had to lay flat and keep his legs straight for three hours. This wasn’t too bad (I had read some pretty rough stories from other parents). Henry spent the whole time in the hospital trying to rip the IV out of his arm. Initially, they had his pulse ox on the same finger and I kept trying to tell him that the red light was Luke Skywalker’s light saber. He found that amusing for about a minute as he was still heavily sedated and swinging his finger around. We tried to keep him distracted with every preschool video we had, Thomas, Dora, Backyardagains, and Little Einsteins. The new Thomas the Train engine, Henry engine and portable carrying train case that we had him unwrap gave a few minutes of peace until he realized that he could not push the train around the track (still heavily sedated at this point). Nothing seem to be working, he was not happy and very irritated. We moved from the recovery unit to Six West, our new home for the night. After a couple of hours in the recovery room, he drank some apple juice. That seemed to be going well, so they let us try more foods. Let’s just say that the McDonald’s vanilla shake did not sit too well in his tummy. As the doctors were examining him to see if he could be released earlier, Henry became queasy from the drugs and starting throwing up. They gave him Zofran (anti-nausea medicine) and after a couple hours, he appeared to be okay. It was getting late and I know everyone wanted us just to stay the night. However, the thought of an irritated two and half-year old, hooked up to machines, lying in a crib was not a formula for a good night sleep. So at 10:30pm, the nurse gave us our discharge papers and we were on our way home.
Henry before coming home and three outfit changes later. However, the Thomas the Train engine PJs that Gramma Jerre made were pretty darn cute.
Henry got a solid six hours of sleep Thursday night but unfortunately woke up around 6am hungry and still very agitated. Let’s just say that Friday was a tough day for him. However, by Saturday, Henry was back to normal. He did take long naps but was happy and enjoyed playing with everyone in the family. Steve’s mom, Jerre, arrived on Saturday before the procedure and just left today. It was great having her here. She got to spend some great time with all the kids.
Henry on Sunday climbing the slide
At this point, we are scheduled to meet with Dr. Starnes, Henry’s surgeon, on July 7th to discuss the cath and Henry’s next surgery, the Fontan. We anticipate that the surgery will be scheduled for some time in August.
