Today is a much better day

It's amazing the difference a day makes. Two days ago, we sat with Dr. Ross to discuss the surgery and the risks Henry was facing.  The most terrifying of these was a 5-8% chance that Henry wouldn't survive surgery. To some, those odds likely sound pretty good (and we did try to see them that way), however, we have been on the wrong side of the stats too many times.... You know you can be that small percentage.  Dr. Ross shared with us that years ago, babies with Henry's heart problems (100% of them) did not survive - there wasn't a treatment option.  Results have improved over time and at this centre are among the best in North America.  We are lucky that Henry is in such good hands.

We will be including pictures in this blog that may be hard to look at for some.... certainly for us they can be. However, one thing we are hoping to come of this record of our journey is to help other families. It can help when you have an idea what to expect.  We were shown pictures of babies that were 3-4x Henry's size/age and who had associated syndromes... good information that we very much appreciated, but very different from what we are facing.

Here is the team bringing Henry out of the OR.... You can't imagine our relief to see him.  I could see one of the anaesthetists smiling from this far away and just knew he had done well.  She stopped the team as they reached us and encouraged us to welcome Henry back and give him kisses.

Here is Henry's station in the pediatric ICU. This is a unit with highly specialized training of their staff to deal with post-surgical kids.  Henry will be here until he meets a few milestones and then will go back to the NICU just up the hall.

There are about 20 machines that monitor pressure in Henry's heart, in his veins, deliver medications to keep him painfree and to help him breath if he needs it. There's a warmer so he stays nice and warm despite having all his clothes off so they can watch him closely and have easy access to any tubes and wires they need to work on.

This picture is one of the things we had to most prepare ourselves for. The tape on Henry's chest says "Chest Open". There are signs above his bed that say skin closed, chest open.  This is because Henry is small and because they were operating in such a small space and in a significant way, there is swelling - it needs somewhere to go and if they were to close the sternum, the swelling would squeeze the heart and make it hard, if not impossible, to pump.  You can see his little heart beating when you look at the skin. It makes him seem even more vulnerable and I must admit that though I am not typically a fainter and though I knew to expect this, I felt like I just might faint when it was the reality in front of me.  They will leave Henry's chest open for around 3 days (on a happy note, Dr. Ross came in this morning and said he was considering doing it today because Henry is doing so well...however, it is likely they will wait until tomorrow just to be safe).  The procedure to close the chest will happen right at Henry's station in the PICU.  It happens much the same way they do it with adults - with wires the hold things together to heal.

Henry and Owen this morning.... A little brotherly bonding session :)  Magnus had a few snuggles with Owen this morning too. He is finally starting to learn "gentle".   Dr. Ross came in to see us first thing today and said Henry had as good a night as possible after the type of surgery he had.  The first twelve hours are most critical and highest risk and he has passed those.  His bleeding has stopped and they are happy with how he is progressing.  They will have to watch to make sure the bleeding doesn't start again. Henry's heart rate is a little high (mid-170's), but they are not hugely concerned about that.  He has more swelling today as you will see in the picture below. This, too, is expected and they will give medications over the coming days to allow him to get rid of this.  Obviously Henry has a lot more recovering to do, but we are relieved more than we can say that his first major obstacles are behind us.

I will close here for now, but thank every one of you who have sent us positive thoughts, vibes, prayers or whatever method of support.  It all helps and we feel more than a little lucky to be surrounded by people like you.  Henry, Owen, and Magnus are very lucky to be raised in a community of people like you.  More soon.