Day 29: October 15

Now that we are past the first 24+ hours after Sam’s surgery, I am finally able to write about our experiences yesterday.

We arrived at the hospital at 7 to be greeted by a lot of hustle of bustle in Sam’s room.  First, they had to move him from his isolette into an open bed with a heat lamp.  Then, they had to get all of the surgical equipment moved in and set up. We were able to squeeze in and talk to Sam before we finally got kicked out around 7:50 to allow the team to get everything ready.

By about 8:20, the team from Children’s Hospital began to arrive.  The first person we talked to was the anesthesiologist.  I was anxious to talk to him, as I am very sensitive to anesthesia and just wanted him to know to be extra careful in case Sam has the same issues.  Then the surgeon arrived.  He looked exactly as the nurses had described him- tall, bald and confident.  We had a quick chat, where he told us not to worry and then he was gone.

Before we knew it, they pulled the door to Sam’s room shut and they were off and running.  By this time, my parents had arrived.  They settled in with a huge pot of coffee in the family room while Peter and I moved into an empty room across the hall from Sam’s room so I could pump.  Turns out the surgery took less time than it took me to pump!  I got myself put back together, and the surgeon came in to tell us that everything had gone really well.  We were told we could go in and see Sam.

Peter jumped at the chance.  I, on the other hand, was having some problems.  That morning I woke up not feeling all that great and by the time the surgery was over, I was starting to bleed a little bit again and was suffering from pretty severe cramps.  As soon as I knew Sam was OK, all hell broke loose with me.  Just like a few weeks ago, I stood up and started to walk to the bathroom when a huge (and I mean huge) gush of blood came out.  By the time I got to the bathroom, I was ashen and had blood everywhere.  This time, I passed a clot the size of the palm of my hand as well as a couple smaller ones.  To make a long story short: we paged my doc who got me in for an ultrasound as quickly as possible.  In the meantime, the NICU staff got me set up in one of the sleep rooms so I could lie down and rest before the ultrasound.  The results of the ultrasound were the same as the previous two- there was still something in me.  I saw my doctor today and she thinks I may have a low grade uterine infection that is causing all the issues.  I am now on antibiotics and if I am still in pain on Monday she will do an D&C on Tuesday.  In the meantime, I am in a lot of pain and a bit nervous that I will have another blood gush at an inopportune time.

OK… back to Sam.  After the surgery, the doctor had told us to expect him to get a lot worse for a couple of days.  Peter and I prepared ourselves for that.  Our first look at Sam was startling- as he looked like a wax doll with an open eye.  Part of the anesthesia included a paralytic- and when they gave it to Sam, he happened to have his eye open:

Even though they prepared us for the worse, Sam is a rock star.  He had a little bit of trouble with his blood pressure at first, and they maxed out on the dopamine and epinephrine and had to give him a steroid to help get his blood pressure up.  By 5 am, however, he had stabilized and they had taken him off both the dopamine and the epinephrine! By 9 this morning, they had taken Sam off the ventilator.  By 3 pm he was moved back to CPAP, and they are even talking about putting him on the basic nose cannulas again.

I guess it is fair to say that Sam needed this surgery and is responding really well to it.  It is also fair to say that Sam is healing much better than his mom!

A few more pics from yesterday and today:

And now for your moment of zen: