My sweet Oliver James continues to amaze me!
Last Wednesday we came to Children’s Hospital for his pre-admission testing. Prior to the open-heart surgery, Oliver was required to have an EKG, echo, chest x-ray, labs, and a nasal swab to check for viral infections. Last Friday we received a phone call from the nurse telling us Oliver passed all of his pre-admission testing!
On Sunday (the evening before the surgery) Ethan and Charlie (my other two children) went to a sleepover with their cousins. That evening, Luke, Oliver, and I arrived at the Ronald McDonald House. The service was extremely friendly and the rooms were clean and comfortable! Having a room there was such a blessing! These last few days have been extremely stressful, and it was helpful not having to worry about driving back and forth from the hospital.
Oliver at the Ronald McDonald House the night before the surgery.
On Monday (the day of the surgery), we arrived to the surgery admitting at 0600. Of course, I was anxious. Being a nurse, I sometimes know too much! The risks involved with this surgery were weighing heavy on my heart. One of the hardest moments was walking Oliver back to the operating room and having to hand him to the nurse. It broke my heart! I honestly wanted to fall to the ground and cry. Talk about having to put your trust in someone else’s hands! Literally!
During the operation, we received frequent updates via text messaging. They sent text messages with updates, pictures, and videos. I was extremely pleased with the frequency and the content of the messages. Oliver did great during the surgery. The surgery from start to finish took approximately 4.5 hours. The surgeon was able to repair the ventricular septal defect, the atrial septal defect, and the patent ductus arteriosus. The surgeon said that Oliver’s ventricular hole was “enormous”. He said it was the size of a quarter! That is enormous when his heart is a little larger than the size of a golf ball!
Oliver was taken from the operating room straight to his bed in the cardiac intensive care unit. My heart broke the moment I saw him! My baby that never cries was screaming! It was a raspy, painful cry. He had a central line, an arterial line, two peripheral lines, pacemaker wires, a chest tube, and a foley catheter. He did have some issues during the recovery. The main issue was the amount of blood draining from the chest tube. Oliver received a unit of packed red blood cells in the operating room. Once we got to the ICU, he received fresh frozen plasma times three, platelets times two, and cryoprecipitate times one. This did help to slow down the bleeding.
Oliver about an hour after surgery.
Oliver went for over 24 hours with only sleeping for 15-30 seconds and then would wake up crying.
Oliver giving me the “stink eye” because I wasn’t able to hold him.
On the 2nd day post-op, the medical staff was able to remove most of the wires, tubes, and drains! He was finally able to rest comfortably in his bed. After 32 hours, I was finally able to hold my sweet Oliver! It felt like an eternity not being able to snuggle with Oliver when he was clearly uncomfortable. I am still very nervous about holding him. Hopefully, that will go will go away soon.
One of the best feelings in the world- a baby in your arms!
Today is his 3rd day post-op. Everyone has been very impressed with his speedy recovery! The chest x-ray from this morning showed a partial atelectasis (small area of the lung that has collapsed) and pleural effusions (fluid between the lining of the lungs and the chest) in the bases of his lungs. The doctor placed an order for chest physiotherapy (treatment to assist in opening the airway and removing the fluid build up).
The nurse put a sock on his hand because he was trying to eat his IV.
Oliver’s trademark is his fabulous hair and his sweet smiles!
The most exciting news is that we will be able to take our baby out in public! Oliver is almost 4 months old and has not been able to go to public places. We had to keep him in a bubble to protect him from infections. Now that his heart is fixed, we will be able to take him places! The doctor recommended we continue keeping him in the bubble for another two weeks. They really do not want him getting sick in the next four to six weeks while he is healing. We will continue to do our best to keep him away from germs.
Oliver is a big hit on the cardiac floor! Since we have become “frequent flyers”, we get to see many of the same nurses and techs. It makes me so happy when they all remember him by name! One of the nurses yelled, “Ollie!” as we were being wheeled onto the unit. When I found out about Oliver having Down Syndrome and Tetralogy of Fallot, I knew that God had a special plan for his life. Honestly, I can say that at first I was not happy with the plan God had for him. Later I realized that Oliver was going to touch a lot of lives. Truly, I had no idea how many lives he would touch.
Adventures of the Kuhns 
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