My Little { Heart Hero} Owee

While I have been sucked into hospital time, I have lost hours as well as track of what day it is, but the good news is that Owain is doing great.

Friday was such a long, long day, I thought it would never end. I am still recovering from the stress of waiting and worrying. Not to mention the lack of sleep since then.

He was finally brought back to the PICU after surgery around 8pm after almost 10 hours of waiting for him. Everything went good with the surgery, it all just took a very long time. The hardest part was getting through the scar tissue that was created after 3 cath procedures and 2 previous Heart Surgeries. He had to make things difficult, but in the end he did a great job, and once again amazed me. He came up from the OR with no breathing tube, woke up and begged for water. After that long of a surgery with that much anesthesia he had to wait something like 4 hours before he could start eating ice chips or having sips of water.

I left to get about 5 hours of sleep while he had an exhausted first night after surgery so we could both start out our recover journey refreshed as possible. The nurse told me that he woke up shortly before I got there asking to watch The Wonder Pets, lol.

By Saturday morning he was moving around, asking for more “chips of ice” and water. We also watched the same Dora DVD for over 12 hours.

I will forever laugh at the memory of him deciding that he needed to get out of bed first thing Saturday morning. As I was sitting next to him rubbing his head or back or something, trying to help him feel better, he suddenly flipped over and was up on all 4s! He was trying to crawl out of bed and suddenly realized that he was both in pain and and attached to many wires and tubes. Then he decided that he needed to pull them off so he could escape. While doing this he was telling me that he was “ready to get out of here”. I laugh because I am shocked at his ability to flip himself over 12 hours after open heart surgery and because he was only wearing a hospital gown and while all this was going on, his bare naked but was swinging in the air! I will never forget that moment, haha! I couldn’t hold him down  myself, luckily his cardiologist was outside of his room and was able to send help my way.

My Little Owee is such a fighter, even after open heart surgery he is still stronger than his Mama!

By around 1pm on Saturday, he was walking! We set up a wagon for him about 50 steps down the hall and told him that he could go for a ride if he got to the wagon. He thought it was a good idea and eagerly walked to the wagon and enjoyed an exhausted ride around the PICU and continues to amaze me now as he practically runs down the hall to the wagon.  We went for 2 walks on Saturday and Sunday, and 3 today.

Yesterday we were moved from the PICU to the floor! I was expecting to be in the PICU until at least today and mostly likely until Tuesday.

We are in a shared room, but so far don’t have a neighbor. I really hope we don’t get one either. Being in the PICU means that he needs more critical care, but at least the rooms are private and there is a nice sized bench/bed to sleep on. I am still in pain from sleeping on the sleeper chair last night, thankfully Owain’s nurse brought me a foam mat to sleep on. I feel like I am sleeping on a gym class mat, lol.

Owain is recovering so well, I am shocked at how quickly things are happening. I know that after the fontan, things can change quickly, but for now he is doing great! They took out the central line in his neck as well the pacemaker wires, and have been trying to wean him down off of his oxygen. His O2 is in the mid 70s now, and is expected to go up as he recovers. Sometimes his is on oxygen and sometimes room air, and his Sats drop down low enough that we end up turning it back on. He has been at .5 liters of O2 on and off since yesterday and is sleeping with it on now.

We have about 3 hours left before his nurse comes in and gives him his meds at 4am, and with any luck we will both sleep until then!