Surgery is done!

Surgery day is done and over and Anthony pretty much sailed through it. It is open heart surgery so there is quite a recovery time, but the big one is behind us now. We got to the hospital at 7am this morning. They were getting ready to take him down to surgery. We got to stay with him in the pre-op area for a little bit and he was all smiles. I gave him LOTS and LOTS of kisses and special kisses for grandparents and aunts and he smiled after every one! I told him to do well and that he is such a strong little boy!

It was a while before we got any updates, but they did keep us informed as things went on. I think he finished up surgery around 11:30 or 12. The surgery was pretty uneventful and everything went as planned. His surgeon, Dr. Hirsch repaired the hole between his ventricles with a patch. His own tissue will eventually grow over this patch as he gets older. He also had a small hole in between the atriums of his heart that she sutured shut. She had to open up the leaflets in one of the valves of his heart as well.

We were able to see Anthony about 2pm. It was heart. He is on a breathing machine and was very sedated. He has LOTS of tubes. His trach, g-tube, a chest tube, catheter, arterial line, IV, central line. I think that is all. It was hard to see him like that but we know that it will get better. He was already starting to be weaned off the ventilator. He might only be on it for a day or two. He is also involved in a research study where his blood sugars will be closely monitored and adjusted. The thinking of this is if he has great glucose control, it will lead to better healing and a less risk for infection. I think this will be good for him. We will be back in the morning to see how he is doing. We have amazing family and my sister took Sophia for the night and Tony's parents will have her after that. This way we can focus on Anthony and getting him better. We have the greatest family ever!

I am so in love with U of M. The nurses are great and actually fill me in on what is going on with his care. It is so crazy the difference with the PICU here and at DeVos. We are invited to attend rounds as well. We probably won't go tomorrow morning because we want to sleep in a bit, but it's nice to know that we have the option. The communication here is great and I feel involved with the plan of care. I couldn't ask for more!

Getting Ready for the BIG One...

So, this is a big week for the LaFata family. Anthony arrived to Ann Arbor via ambulance yesterday afternoon. I was able to ride with him and Tony came down later with Sophia after she got her 4 month shots. The ride down seemed to go pretty quick. When Anthony arrived there was a lot of people in to see him. His nurse, doctors, social worker. It didn't take me very long to realize how much better the care is here at U of M. Tony seems to think it's not as great because DeVos is a for profit organization. Whatever it is, there is a major difference.

I felt so out of the loop of things at DeVos. Just because I wasn't able to be at Anthony's bedside 24/7 doesn't mean I didn't care about him, but that's almost the way that I felt. Last week Thursday Anthony had been transferred back to the PICU because he was having some respiratory distress which had started Wednesday night when my mom was visiting with him. I had put a new outfit on him Thursday morning that was washed in a different detergent and soon after he broke out in a rash. The nurse in the PICU blamed me for all of his issues and said that it was all related to the detergent, breathing issues and all. Well, obviously not because he was having breathing difficulty 14 hours before he had the outfit on. Come to find out from the cardiologist that they thought the rash was from a medication, but nobody thought it was important enough to share that with me and the fact that he had an infection in his trach. It's so frustrating. If we do end up going back there, I feel the only way to get all the information will be to read his chart because nobody tells me anything. It's beyond frustrating. The staff up in the ICU expected us to do this "rooming in" with Anthony, but it was impossible to fit it in with our schedules. They never supplied us with enough of what we needed to do trach care and we were never educated on g-tube care, yet we were supposed to do this, um yeah? Anyway, I will stop rambling, but I do think I will need to file a complaint. Yeah DeVos might have a nice building but that doesn't mean jack if the care sucks!

So, more on tomorrow. Anthony's surgery is scheduled for 7:30am. I am not sure how long it is expected to take, but I can imagine it being relatively long. It will be a hard day, but we have lots of family coming down to support us. He will go to the PICU after his surgery and will probably be there at least a couple days. He is currently getting some blood to perk him up for tomorrow. He got a new IV today for the blood, but will get a central line in surgery which will be great for him!

I just want to thank everybody for there support. It has been hard, but it would be much harder without all of you. Thanks for all of the cards, we do appreciate them! Also, I want to thank my co-workers for their generosity! A bunch of them pitched in and got us $200 in Meijer gift cards. That is perfect because we can use them for gas, formula, groceries, diapers, whatever! Thank you guys! Also, I received 25 cards in the mail yesterday from an online group of moms that I belong to. I was so touched!

I will post updates tomorrow as I can. Thanks again...we love being at U of M even though it is far away!