Day 2 - Surgery

Today was the day, and Benny did wonderfully! Here's a little synopsis of our day:

Around 6:30am, a member from the transport team came to his room in the intermediate care unit (PIMCU) and escorted us down to the 2nd floor, which is where surgery takes place. We were put in the surgery holding area and waited there until about 7:45am when the nurse and the anesthesiologist came in and explained a little bit to us of what would be happening. The nurse gave Benjamin a sedative (which I cannot remember the name of at the moment) which would help him to relax and "get a little loopy". Within seconds of administering the drug, Benjamin was "flying high" so to speak. It was the funniest thing that Darin and I have ever witnessed! We made sure to capture a little video clip of his behavior just moments after he received his happy meds!

Once the laughing subsided, Darin and I said our goodbyes to our little man and the nurse carried him back to the operating room. We were told at that point it would be a good time to eat breakfast since the first update won't come until after they anesthesize him and do his echocardiogram. So, we grabbed some breakfast and took it up to the surgical waiting area, where we spent the rest of our morning. The staff was terriffic about frequently updating us on his progress, which we were most appreciative of. The began the surgery around 9am and about two and a half hours later they came out and said they were closing him up. Dr. Husain came out and told us about the procedure and how it all went and was extremely pleased with how Benjamin did. They did encounter quite a bit of scarring under the rib cage and had to spend some time trying to separate it from his heart, but after that, he did fantastic. They were able to put in quite a large valve (18 mm) which is terrific news!! This hopefully means that we have bought him some more time than expected until his next surgery.

He was transported up the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) where he will be for the next couple of days. They have a great group of nurses and doctors in that unit, and Benjamin is being well looked after. It was decided that he would remain sedated today, the ultimate goal being to keep him comfortable. As you can see from the pictures, he is on a ventilator (which he should be coming off of tomorrow), and has an extensive amount of medications going into him! They have been trying to make him super comfortable all day, however, Benjamin is a mover and a shaker. He is burning through his pain meds so fast that he seems to only get about 20 minutes of relief before he starts moving again. He's already attempted to roll over a few times and constantly moves his arms and legs. He started scrunching his eyes like he was trying to cry and so they weren't sure if he was in pain or just uncomfortable. So, they are continuing to increase his pain medication as necessary. He also had a tube placed down into his stomach to relieve the excess fluid and gas that might be building up in there. That actually seemed to relax him a little bit (once it was in) so perhaps he was feeling gassy! As long as he's on a ventilator, the tube will remain in his stomach.

We will continue to keep you all updated as his recovery progresses. Tomorrow is going to be a big day for all of us. They will be taking him off the ventilator and allowing him to wake up and start moving. His pain meds will change to different ones and they will just monitor him and see how he does. Darin is staying the night with him again tonight and I will return tomorrow morning. Thank you all for your prayers. Benny is so blessed to have so many people who love him and continuously pray for him (we all are blessed by this). Stay tuned for more.....