Post-Op Day 1

Elijah had his Glenn yesterday! Although it was very scary to send our baby away for surgery, we knew that he would be better in the end. The surgery itself went smoothly and was quick, but he did have quite a bit of bleeding that they needed to control and that took some time. We were a little worried when he didn't come back to the ICU as soon as we thought, but in the end it was ok.

As I said earlier, the surgeons weren't quite sure which procedure they were going to perform until they opened him up. They wanted to do the Glenn, which would be the next surgery anyway, but because he is still so young and so little, they weren't sure his body could handle it. Typically they want these little guys to be 6 months old and weigh 15lbs or so. Elijah is not even 4 months old and weighs barely 10lbs. But they were able to do the Glenn.

He is doing well so far, but he is on a lot of support still. He had high pressures in his lungs and needed to be put on Nitric. He still has a breathing tube and two chest tubes. His incision is closed this time and he has an NG tube. His coloring is so much better. On Sunday and Monday before the surgery, certain parts of his body, like his feet, were straight out purple. The doctors and the nurses like to say these kids are "dusky." This kid was straight out purple. He is nice and pink now!

Every day here in the CTICU we have goals and today's goals are to wean off of the Nitric, get the breathing tube out, maintain good numbers, and be calm. Just like Noah, Elijah is a busy little boy and every time he gets moving his pressures go up. So we are trying to keep him calm and allow his little body to get used to the new circulation. They have warned us that he will probably get headaches because his head isn't used to that much blood flow and that his head may swell.  In other words, morphine and ativan are our friends.