our first night post-fontan

so, it has now been about 9 hours since they finished asher's surgery. 9 incredible hours. 9 emotional hours.

first, confusion mixed with elation. did dr caldarone actually use the word "uneventful"?! if i hadn't been there to hear it for myself, i would never have believed it.

now, i don't really know what to call this. when i left him a few minutes ago, he was getting blow-by oxygen and his sats were sitting in the low 90s. he's working to breathe quite a bit, though that seemed to have lessened somewhat when we rolled him onto his right side. (and i don't know how he plans to rest all night like that, with broken ribs and everything, but hey, when you only got about 4 hours of sleep and then had open heart surgery, i'm sure you sleep however you want. lol) his stridor is still there, and sometimes it's worse than others. but a few good coughs clear that up a bit, or at least help it to improve.

and get this.

he's been drinking some water. with no problem!!! we're not giving him very much due to the anaesthetic today, but he's getting about 10 to 15 mls every hour or so... or at least when he wakes up. so far he's keeping it down.

the plan for tonight is just to keep him comfortable with his oxygen levels as high as possible, which means they won't be taking away the blow-by any time soon. but he's doing very well, and tonight should be just as uneventful as this morning. the plan for tomorrow is to begin removing some lines (he has quite a few right now) and give him something to eat... yes, you read that right... something to eat!!!

it's wonderful to see him so pink. he really does look fantastic! i've never known his tongue to be anything other than blue, and now it's pink! same with his fingernails!!! PINK!!! can you believe that?!?!

on the other hand, he is in a lot of pain, and that's just so hard to see. i wish there was some way i could make him feel better. they turned off his morphine a few hours ago because he was so stridorous (loud breathing), and they suspected that he was over-sedated and that if they allowed him to wake up a bit he could protect his airway better. it seems to be working a little bit. we gave him a bit of tylenol an hour or so ago, and there's some discussion of bolus morphine (a dose every few hours instead of continuously), but we'll see how tonight goes.

as for me, i'm exhausted, so i'm heading to bed. i'll be in and out of the unit tomorrow, so feel free to call. if i don't answer, just leave a message, or keep trying. i'll try to get back to you quickly... but you know... hospital timelines... ;)