August 16, 2012

Sorry there haven't been any more updates.  The surgeon came to speak with us about 1:45 and as soon as he left-the nurses came to get us & we've been up in Nolan's room since 2pm.  (give or take a few pee & eat breaks)

Short version:  In for surgery at 8:30.  Done with surgery by 12:30.  In room at 1:00.  We saw Nolan at 2:00.  Extubated at 6:30pm.  Praise God!  Read no further if all you wanted was a quick update :)

For those who like more details-continue on :) 

It is 7:30pm, and I'm back at the trailer for a quick bite to eat & update the blog.  Doesn't seem real that a little over 12 hours ago we were making the trek across the parking lot to hand off our little man to the surgeon.

Just before 6:30 this morning-Nolan was STILL saying that he wasn't going to surgery-and even hid under the table in the trailer.  But it only took minor coaxing for him to come out & take the walk with us.

 Though I hope that no parent as to do this-if your child needs open-heart surgery, take them to Sutter Memorial!  The staff is awesome with children.  After the boring registration stuff (ok-they need a little help in this area-we've registered 3x in 2 days?) we were escorted by the Child Life Specialist-Monique-to the holding area for surgery.  They had a bed set up for Nolan with a handmade quilt (car-themed), a pillow with a star pillowcase, a bag of goodies (for him to keep) and some other "car" themed toys from the playroom on the bed for him to play with.  (I've added some pics of that area to the blog).  Nolan did fine with the nurse taking his stats but Monique was aware of Nolan's trepidation and so we just  played for some time and didn't get jammies on until after he had drank his sedative.  While were playing our neighbor (a 7 or 8 year old girl) was getting very upset as they were prepping for her IV.  Our nurse suggested, we take Nolan for a walk outside in the hallway so as to no create more anxiety for this poor kid.  About 5 minutes later we came back and played some more.  The staff was very sensitive to Nolan and they were excellent at handling him. 

Dr. Nasirov & the anesthesiologist came by and then at 8:05 Nolan was given the "happy juice".  He followed directions specifically and even verified what he was supposed to do with it before drinking it.  We were told he'd get giggly and goofy like he was drunk.  We had the video camera ready-but our son is just a "tired" drunk ;)  He just got mellow & sleepy.  He asked me once if he was here for his surgery and then said he wasn't going.  While watching a Scooby Doo video, we helped him into his PJ's and at 8:30 , they came to wheel him away.  We followed him to the operating room hallway and just before going in through the doors, he turned to me and asked, "Am I going for surgery?"  I just nodded and whispered yes.  He stared at me for a moment, and I'm sure if he hadn't been drugged I would have gotten the evil eye & his tongue stuck out at me.  As it was-he just turned back to his video (they kept it on his lap the whole time) and was wheeled away.  Not ten minutes later, Monique came to tell us he was asleep and there were no issues.

We came back to the trailer until the first phone call at 10:50 am.  The nurses that would be taking care of Nolan after surgery would be updating us frequently on his progress.  They called to tell us that Dr. Nasirov and team had opened the chest and were getting ready to start the bypass machine.  By this time my mom and aunt had arrived, so we visited a bit longer and had something to eat.  The next call came at 11:50 saying that Dr. Nasirov was finished with the repair and was getting ready to take Nolan off bypass.  So we headed up to the waiting room for the next call.  It came at 12:30pm saying that Nolan was done and that they (his nurses) we heading down to the OR to bring him up to his room.  Dr. Nasirov came into the waiting room about 1:45 and said all went great and we'd be able to see Nolan in the next 20-30 minutes.  5 minutes later, the nurse came to take us back to see Nolan!

Scott and I took turns hanging out in the room-Nolan had 3 nurses taking care of him and an ICU doctor.  For Scott and I both, it was kind of cool to watch the staff work -as we've been on the patient side completely out of it before :)   We'd take breaks back to the waiting room to eat etc. The doctor talked about extubating but nothing happened.  They were waiting for Nolan to wake up a little an open his eyes.  He finally did sometime around 5:45 pm or so, but when we asked him if he wanted the tube out, he shook his head and went back to sleep. When he woke up again about 15 minutes later-he tried to open his eyes and nod a few more times before the decision was made that it was time to extubate.  By this time, Leah had arrived and had seen Nolan.  She had gone back to the trailer to eat something and where she and Grammy came to say goodbye-it was time to extubate, so she was just outside the room with Grammy and got to see him soon after he was extubated.  She was able to see him open his eyes and be agitated too.  He was extubated at 6:30pm.

Ok...I'm done eating and it's time to head back up.  I only have photos downloaded  to my computer from pre-op stuff.  I'll try to add post-op ones tomorrow sometime.  This is going to be a long night and long day tomorrow...so the update may be late.

God Bless all of you.  Continue those prayers for a speedy recovery please.  Not sure what kind of patient Nolan is going to make yet  :)