Super Quick Post Surgery Update!

I can’t believe how much time has gone by since his surgery, and since we have been home! Owain is doing great, we were sent home only 6 days post fontan. Unbelievable!

His brothers planned a surprise party for him, decorated the living room, and gathered all of his favorite things. Everyone was full of smiles, and he soaked up all the love that his brothers were passing out!

He has had some good days, some bad days, and some super awesome days. Today is not so much a bad day, as a not so great day. He is moody, irritable, and seems to be more uncomfortable today than he has been in days. Lots of tossing and turning last night, so it may just be that he didn’t get enough sleep last night.

We were home last Thursday, and he ended the night with a fever. After talking with peds cardiology on the phone, they said that it was natural to have a fever after surgery, and without seeing any signs of infection that he was OK. The next day when looking at his dressing, it looked like part of his incision was infected. A quick trip to clinic, and it was determined that it was just oozing, but not infected. Great news, no infection, and I was off to see Cars 2 with all 5 kids.

For the most part, it is hard to even tell that he had open heart surgery less than 2 weeks ago! It is hard to keep him still, and his movements hardly make me think of someone who just had their chest cut open. I checked on him the other night, and he was fast asleep on his chest, what an amazing little guy he is!

He is on some lasix, aldactone, and motrin as needed for pain. I stopped giving him tylenol the other day, and he didn’t even notice. He was getting tylenol and motrin alternating every 3 hours for most of the time he was in the hospital. I kept that up when we got home, and increased the time in between until I cut out the tylenol all together. Now he is getting the motrin every 6-8 hours as needed, and is doing great with the pain. He casually said “ouch, this hurts” to me yesterday and pointed to his chest when we were cuddling at bedtime. That has been the first time he said that to me specifically since his surgery. Then he adjusted a bit, and said he was fine. Such a brave little guy!

He has a check up with peds cardiology tomorrow afternoon. We have to go get a chest x-ray first to look for fluid around his heart and lungs, and then go over to clinic for the full cardio work-up that is echo, ekg, pulse-ox & vitals, the usual. Hopefully everything will look great! He is having a little bit of shortness of breath today, which could mean fluid is building up, but it could be his asthma acting up as well. It is not too alarming at this point, and we will know more tomorrow.

The Big 3 kids are in NY with my parents so Owain can recover quietly, get all the attention he needs, and little sister is here to keep him company. She is in Heaven now that he is home, and with brothers gone, she has him all to herself. Those two are stuck together, having a great time.

They are laying on the couch together taking a nap, and I am going to go join them.