Successful surgery

My son just got finished with open heart surgery and the surgeon said everything went great. A few days in the hospital now...blah.

Congrats! Wishing him a full and speedy recovery!

Great news!

Great news. Hope all continues to go well.

Congratulations and a speedy recovery!

Intensity wishing you and your family all the best. Hoping for a full recovery.

Everything should be good. We appreciate all the good wishes. This is a surgery we knew had to happen, just happy to have it finished. Now comes the tough part.

Great to hear, man!

Good luck and wishes to you and your family, man.

post OP.

Glad the little man did well. Hope he heals up quickly

Glad to hear everything went well! Extra scary when they're so little.
Sounds like you could use a beer.

Wow. Best wishes to you all. Tough little guy.

Congrats and here's to all going well moving forward!!

Awesome news Inten. Let me know if you want to use my slingbox to stream the Wings or Tigers while you're in the hospitable. I can hook a brother up.

WhiteBoyHatcher wrote:Awesome news Inten. Let me know if you want to use my slingbox to stream the Wings or Tigers while you're in the hospitable. I can hook a brother up.

Hah! Thanks. We're not staying here tonight, no where to sleep. I forgot the wings are playing.

Tough way to come into the world. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery and never having to do that again.

Best wishes, amazing what they can do nowadays.

InTenSity wrote:
post OP.

Christ, that's hard to see, and he's not even mine.

Best of luck to you and the fam, especially your little dude.

InTenSity wrote:
post OP.

Holy shite. Can't imagine how hard that must have been for you to go through. Best wishes to you. Glad to hear he's doing well.

SpartanInNH wrote:

InTenSity wrote:
post OP.

Christ, that's hard to see, and he's not even mine.

Best of luck to you and the fam, especially your little dude.

I thought the exact same thing. I can't imagine what you are going through as a parent. Get well soon little dude.

SpartanInNH wrote:

InTenSity wrote:
post OP.

Christ, that's hard to see, and he's not even mine.

Best of luck to you and the fam, especially your little dude.

this..

thoughts and best of wishes to you and your family, InTensity!

Here's the thing. When they came to get him it was a little tough to just let him go, but at the same time we know we are at one of the best places in the US for this type of surgery. During the surgery, after he is out of your hands, and knowing it is a 'routine' heart surgery, it wasn't that bad. My wife and I actually fell asleep for a little bit in the waiting area. Seeing him come by with the tubes was a little hard at first as well, differently for my wife though. She's a nurse, so her thoughts were to get the tubes out to prevent infection. Mine was more thinking about how much it hurt when they pulled tubing out of my knee, so what is it going to feel like pulling one out of his chest.
The ICU is the absolute best place for him to be, the nurses and Dr's are among some of the best, his surgery wasn't overly complicated, so recovery should be normal. This is a one time deal, or it should be. The surgeon believes he fixed everything that needed to be fixed and he's been doing this for 20+ years.
I'm more nervous about him getting released from the hospital, when we have to take care of him. The next couple of weeks will be tough, since you can't pick him up under his arms, or let him move around as much, while trying to make sure his sister and the dog don't do anything that might hurt him. I'm expecting by Friday he'll be active and back to laughing and playing.

InTenSity wrote:Here's the thing. When they came to get him it was a little tough to just let him go, but at the same time we know we are at one of the best places in the US for this type of surgery. During the surgery, after he is out of your hands, and knowing it is a 'routine' heart surgery, it wasn't that bad. My wife and I actually fell asleep for a little bit in the waiting area. Seeing him come by with the tubes was a little hard at first as well, differently for my wife though. She's a nurse, so her thoughts were to get the tubes out to prevent infection. Mine was more thinking about how much it hurt when they pulled tubing out of my knee, so what is it going to feel like pulling one out of his chest.
The ICU is the absolute best place for him to be, the nurses and Dr's are among some of the best, his surgery wasn't overly complicated, so recovery should be normal. This is a one time deal, or it should be. The surgeon believes he fixed everything that needed to be fixed and he's been doing this for 20+ years.
I'm more nervous about him getting released from the hospital, when we have to take care of him. The next couple of weeks will be tough, since you can't pick him up under his arms, or let him move around as much, while trying to make sure his sister and the dog don't do anything that might hurt him. I'm expecting by Friday he'll be active and back to laughing and playing.

What was the purpose of the surgery ?

GirbaudJeans wrote:

InTenSity wrote:Here's the thing. When they came to get him it was a little tough to just let him go, but at the same time we know we are at one of the best places in the US for this type of surgery. During the surgery, after he is out of your hands, and knowing it is a 'routine' heart surgery, it wasn't that bad. My wife and I actually fell asleep for a little bit in the waiting area. Seeing him come by with the tubes was a little hard at first as well, differently for my wife though. She's a nurse, so her thoughts were to get the tubes out to prevent infection. Mine was more thinking about how much it hurt when they pulled tubing out of my knee, so what is it going to feel like pulling one out of his chest.
The ICU is the absolute best place for him to be, the nurses and Dr's are among some of the best, his surgery wasn't overly complicated, so recovery should be normal. This is a one time deal, or it should be. The surgeon believes he fixed everything that needed to be fixed and he's been doing this for 20+ years.
I'm more nervous about him getting released from the hospital, when we have to take care of him. The next couple of weeks will be tough, since you can't pick him up under his arms, or let him move around as much, while trying to make sure his sister and the dog don't do anything that might hurt him. I'm expecting by Friday he'll be active and back to laughing and playing.

What was the purpose of the surgery ?

He had a hole in his heart, called an ASD (Atrial Septum Defect, I think), there was one in the Ventrical side as well, but that closed up. One of the valves also turned out to have a cleft, so they decided to fix that after he was opened up. I don't think that the echocardiogram showed if it was something they had to fix or not, but they were able to, which is a good thing, because they won't have to fix it later. There is also something called a PDA, which everyone has and it closes after birth, his didn't close, so they had to cut it or tie it, basically close it up since they were already in there.
The position of the hole on the Atrium side wasn't going to fix itself and would eventually cause heart failure, by eventually I mean 20+ years. The surgery was basically unavoidable, but it is better to do them when they are younger. A) recovery time is very short, B) he won't remember anything, C) the sternum is more like cartilage at this point and hasn't calcified, so it isn't as invasive if you or I had to have the surgery. D) I was unsure if our insurance was going to change this year or not, right now I have a $500 deductible.

I can't imagine waiting for that surgery to finish. It has to help to have a nurse for a wife.

Here's to a speedy recovery.

InTenSity wrote:Here's the thing. When they came to get him it was a little tough to just let him go, but at the same time we know we are at one of the best places in the US for this type of surgery. During the surgery, after he is out of your hands, and knowing it is a 'routine' heart surgery, it wasn't that bad. My wife and I actually fell asleep for a little bit in the waiting area. Seeing him come by with the tubes was a little hard at first as well, differently for my wife though. She's a nurse, so her thoughts were to get the tubes out to prevent infection. Mine was more thinking about how much it hurt when they pulled tubing out of my knee, so what is it going to feel like pulling one out of his chest.
The ICU is the absolute best place for him to be, the nurses and Dr's are among some of the best, his surgery wasn't overly complicated, so recovery should be normal. This is a one time deal, or it should be. The surgeon believes he fixed everything that needed to be fixed and he's been doing this for 20+ years.
I'm more nervous about him getting released from the hospital, when we have to take care of him. The next couple of weeks will be tough, since you can't pick him up under his arms, or let him move around as much, while trying to make sure his sister and the dog don't do anything that might hurt him. I'm expecting by Friday he'll be active and back to laughing and playing.

Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family...great to hear things are on track so far.

Oh man that is so hard. Watching your infant go through stuff like this is gut wrenching (been there). Bless that little boy!

SpartanInNH wrote:

InTenSity wrote:
post OP.

Christ, that's hard to see, and he's not even mine.

Best of luck to you and the fam, especially your little dude.

I had the same thought--I've got 3: 8, 6 and 3.

Glad to hear it went well. Best wishes.

Update. He's coming along very well. They are already moving him out of ICU today. If they have him moved already, that would mean less than 48 hours in ICU, which is pretty fast. I was told that after he is moved to the other side, he will be discharged a day or 2 later, which means Friday or Saturday. This is going to sound horrible, but one of my league championship rounds is on Saturday, so I'd like him discharged in the afternoon. We thought he'd be there until Sunday or Monday. I just don't want a situation where they send him home too soon and we have to bring him back though.
I'll get a pic posted in a little bit, have to do that from my phone.

InTenSity wrote:Update. He's coming along very well. They are already moving him out of ICU today. If they have him moved already, that would mean less than 48 hours in ICU, which is pretty fast. I was told that after he is moved to the other side, he will be discharged a day or 2 later, which means Friday or Saturday. This is going to sound horrible, but one of my league championship rounds is on Saturday, so I'd like him discharged in the afternoon. We thought he'd be there until Sunday or Monday. I just don't want a situation where they send him home too soon and we have to bring him back though.
I'll get a pic posted in a little bit, have to do that from my phone.

Thanks for the updates! Having raised 4 kids myself, I can't imagine what your family is going through. Maybe the wife being a nurse helps understand what is going on, but I don't care who you are or your background, it's gutwrenching to have to see a baby have to go through this.

Keep us posted. Wish you guys the very best!

Yep, this is the best thread on the board. And I like tSwill a lot.

Three days later.

InTenSity wrote:Three days later.

Now he needs a Brock Lesnar tattoo around that scar.

InTenSity wrote:Three days later.

looking good!

LooseGoose wrote:

InTenSity wrote:Three days later.

Now he needs a Brock Lesnar tattoo around that scar.

InTenSity's little guy looks like a champ!

InTenSity wrote:Three days later.

Congrats and all but let's focus on the important stuff right now..."Are you going to be able to play in the league championship Saturday"???

Robert J Sakimano wrote:InTenSity's little guy looks like a champ!

He does have a pretty good starter mohawk going.