Joey had successful surgery to remove his subaortic membrane on 09/13/01. We said goodbye to him at the OR door at 7:20 AM and he was back in the ICU by 11:15! He spent 54 minutes on a heart-lung bypass machine, and his surgeon took some amazing "before and after" photos of his aortic valve. Click here to see them. The upper left photo is the "before" pic, showing the membrane blocking the center of the valve. The upper right pic shows the membrane that was removed, and the lower pictures are both "after" pictures showing the unobstructed valve. The membrane was much more substantial than we had thought. Fortunately, his surgeon was able to remove the breathing tube in the OR so it was not in place when Joey woke up. He had a little supplemental oxygen via mask, 4 IV's, 2 chest tubes and a Foley catheter when he got to the ICU. He was greeted in the ICU by his parents, Grandma and Aunt Jessie and PopPop and Grandma Julie. Within three hours of leaving the OR, he was awake just long enough to ask us for "chicken tenders, potato chips and a Coke" before drifting off to sleep for the rest of Thursday. Needless to say, once he woke up he got ice chips and Sprite instead of his desired menu. His surgeon came to check on him in the afternoon and deemed him a "superhero of open-heart surgery" because he was doing so well. John and I took shifts so that he wasn't without one of us in the ICU (except for the 2 hours each morning and night when parents are not allowed due to shift change.) We had a room at the Ronald MacDonald House, but we mainly slept an hour or two at a time in the surgical waiting room. Here is a picture of him on Thursday in the ICU.
Friday, the day after the surgery was Joey's only really bad day for this surgery. He was awake on and off, and when he was awake he was fairly angry and wouldn't talk to Mom and Dad in more than one word answers. It seems he suddenly realized that this wasn't as much fun as he expected and that Mom and Dad seemed to be to blame for it. Fortunately, around 10PM he got up to walk around a bit and he started to feel much better (and be much more friendly to Mom and Dad!)
Saturday I arrived back from the shift change (when parents are not allowed in the ICU) to find him gone from his bed. Much to my surprise, he was up and walking ALL over the ICU, with a big smile on his face. He'd had two IV's and the Foley catheter and chest tubes removed and was trucking all over the ICU. He also was visited that morning by his grandma, papa, GG and Great Grandma and later by his Grandma and Aunt Jessie. He was released to the regular floor Saturday. He had wonderful nurses in the ICU, below is a picture of him on Saturday with Shelly, who took care of him both nights in the ICU.
Joey spent Saturday afternoon to Monday morning on the fourth floor, where he enjoyed seeing many visitors, including his friend William from preschool. He also enjoyed playing for hours in the playroom at the hospital. This is a picture of him with Amy, the Child Life Specialist.
We finally got to go home on Monday, 5 days after surgery! Joey was ready to go!
The nurses at All Children's Hospital were great! Here is a picture of Joey stopping to say goodbye to the pre-admission testing nurses (Tracy and Linda) before leaving on Monday.
Thanks to everyone at All Children's Hospital for making a very stressful time much easier!
