The Big Day

Ridge's surgery was scheduled for Monday, April 20th.  He was the 2nd surgery that day so they told us to be to the hospital around 11 to make sure we had time to hold him before they took him away.  Sunday night I was feeling pretty sick and I was really hoping Monday I'd feel better.  I woke up Monday and still didn't feel great but I felt a lot better than I did Sunday evening.  Tagg and I spent some time with the boys and then got ready to go. We said family prayer before we left.  For some reason Tagg thought it would be a good idea for me to say the prayer.  I held it together for the beginning but then all of the anxiousness and nervousness came out and I started crying.  Griff was so funny.  During the prayer, as I started crying he ran over to me and kept saying "Stop Mommy!  Stop!" He didn't want me crying.
I was so stressed about how things were going to go.  We had been waiting for that day for a long time.  We knew that depending on how the surgery went, and how Ridge's body responded to everything would tell us if he was going to survive or not.  I felt like so much was riding on the next few hours.
Tagg and I got to the hospital around 10:30.  We took turns holding Ridge and waiting for the anesthesiologist to come talk to us.

I have learned that any time table you are given when it comes to doctors and surgeons, really means nothing.  His surgery was scheduled for noon but the first surgery took longer which we were told was a possibility so the anesthesiologist didn't come talk to us until 1:30.  He explained what they were going to do and then made sure they had everything they needed to take him back to the operating room.  I was just glad to know that Ridge wouldn't feel any pain through this process. Dr. Span was the anesthesiologist and is in the green in the picture below.

Nothing can really prepare you as a mother for seeing your baby rolled away into an operating room to have open heart surgery.  This was a moment I was absolutely terrified for yet also eternally grateful.  Without these amazing doctors Ridge would have no chance for survival.

The surgery was supposed to be about 3 hours. We were told the first hour would be getting him prepped and hooked up to everything for anesthesia.  The actually surgery would take about an hour and then they would let him recover for a bit as they finished things up. They kept us very well informed throughout the surgery.  The nurse came out and let us know when they had made the first incision and kept us informed on how things were going.  At 3:45 the nurse came out again and told us that they ended up needing to use the heart lung machine on Ridge.  They typically don't have to use the machine on this first surgery, but they always have it ready in case they end up needing it.  They always do a test clamp on the artery to see how the baby is going to react and when they put the clamp on Ridge, he started to twitch so to be safe, they put him on the heart lung machine.  Overall, this wasn't a huge deal except for the fact that it adds about 45 minutes to the surgery. The nurse came out a little later to let us know that things were still going well but taking longer than usual. Once they were able to see the heart, they realized Ridge's anatomy was a little bit different so Dr. Mendeloff had to fix it before they could add the shunt.  Basically, the patent ductus typically connects to the left side of the pulmonary artery.  However, Ridge's came down much closer to the right side which left no room for them to sew in the shunt.  So, Dr. Mendeloff patched the pulmonary artery to enlarge it and make room to connect the shunt.  Throughout this whole process I've just been amazed at how nothing throws them for a loop. They are prepared for anything to happen and they always know exactly what to do when that happens.  There is really no guess work.  This is a picture Dr. Mendeloff drew for us after the surgery to help explain what he had to do during the surgery. 

After they took Ridge into the operating room, I started to get the chills and feel kinda sick.  I also was super exhausted.  I slept throughout most of the afternoon and would wake up when they came to update us.  I started to think I might have a fever but I didn't want to do anything about it until Ridge was done with surgery.  Around 5:15 I started feeling much worse.  By that time my doctors office was closed so I wasn't sure what to do.  Tagg made me go up to the post partum floor to see if they could check my temperature or something.  They weren't really allowed to do anything since I wasn't admitted to the hospital.   I told her my baby was having heart surgery and I wasn't sure what to do.   She recommended I go to the emergency room but then took pity on me and let me take my own temperature.  She said she couldn't look at what my temperature was or really do anything to help.  My temperature was 100.9.  I asked her what my temperature needed to be to call my doctor.  She said 100.4.  I was so upset as I made my way back to Tagg.  I just started bawling.  This was the last thing I needed on top of everything else that was going on.  I called my doctor and left a message.  The on-call doctor called me back and told me to take some tylenol and then make an appointment to see my doctor in the morning to make sure everything was okay.  I was so upset that I wouldn't be able to see Ridge when he was done with surgery, but I also didn't want to do anything to put him in harms way. 

They updated us a few more times just saying that things were going well, but Dr. Mendeloff was still working.  The longer the surgery went, the more nervous I was getting.  They kept saying things were going well, but I didn't understand why it was taking so much longer than anticipated.  Finally around 6:45 they let us know that the surgery was over and they were just closing him up.  Relief! Dr. Mendeloff came and spoke with us for a few minutes and explained everything that he did. 

A few minutes later they had us go into the hall so we could take a quick peek at Ridge as they rolled him back into his room in the CHSU.

What a sight it was to see. So many wires, so many tubes, so many monitors.  It broke my heart. There is one sweet memory I want to remember about the dinosaur blanket you can see underneath him in those pictures. His nurse Cathleen came in after they took him to the OR and asked me if I liked dinosaurs. She showed me the blanket and I told her I thought it was cute.  She said her mom made it and she was saving it for a special patient.  She wanted Ridge to have it on his bed after surgery.  Super sweet!

Once they got him back to his room it took about an hour and half to get everything hooked up and ready before they let us back there.  Because I had been feeling pretty lousy, my mom came and picked me up.  I was actually feeling quite better at this point. I think the stress of the day was just getting to me, but we figured it was still best for me to go home until I could meet with my doctor.  Tagg decided he wanted to sleep at the hospital to be there just in case anything drastic happened.  They told us the first 24 to 48 hours were the most critical in his recovery so we were a little on edge about leaving him. 

Tagg took these pictures of Ridge once they let him back into his room after surgery.

They kept Ridge's eyes covered the first few days after the surgery because he was sensitive to the lights.

He was hooked up to SO many things!  This was the sight we saw when we walked in his room the first few days after surgery.

The first night after surgery was rough for Ridge.  Tagg was up almost all night with all the beeps, alarms, and doctors in and out of the room.  Ridge's blood pressure kept dropping so they kept giving him more meds.  It wasn't helping so they ended up doing a blood transfusion.  The blood transfusion seemed to do the trick.  Ridge was also more awake than usual so they went up on his sedation meds.  They said he wasn't in pain because he was on a lot of pain killers but he was just more aware of what  was going on. 

We were so relieved that the surgery was over, but were still very anxious to see what the next few days would bring and how Ridge's body would respond to everything.