The last 2 days...

 A little over 24 hours ago we were in our house, packing our bags, heading to a new adventure for us. Pierson was actually excited about going to the hospital. He chose a rolling backpack with Cars on it to be his "hospital bag". We filled it up with some of his favorite things and he was ready to go.

When we got to the hospital they let us know P's surgery had been pushed back to due to a complicated prior case. We have no problem sharing Dr. Mendeloff with other heart families who need him. There's enough Dr. M to go around, for sure. So we did our pre-op, watched some cartoons and spent a lot of time in the playroom. P was in heaven! He played forever. Then something really cool happened. Jeff looked at a guy walking by the playroom and said "That looks like Mike" Sure enough, it was our new friend Mike. A few posts ago I mentioned we met with a couple who has an a-dorable baby boy who also had CoArc surgery when he was still a newborn. They have been an extreme blessing to us. We felt armed going in to this because they took the time to share their story with us. He came by to drop off some yummies they had made for us, to hang out with us encourage us, and even more, to pray over us. Major, major blessing. It really helped keep us in the right frame of mind and was a major spirit boost. He also went to the waiting room and visited with our family and showed them pictures of his son’s surgery and gave them an idea of what to expect. This helped our families a ton.



Shortly after Mike left they called us back for surgery. Pierson's usual naptime is around noon and it was about 1:30 by this point. They gave him a little "goofy juice" to help take the edge off of the pre-op and separation process and a few minutes later he was sooooo out. I had climbed up on the bed with him when they gave him the medicine and he fell asleep in my arms. The nurses told me to stay put and that they would wheel him in to pre-op just like that in order to make this easier for everyone. They left us alone real quick while they went to go get something else we needed before we went to pre-op and we prayed over Pierson and cried a little too. So away we went. He stayed passed out the whole time. The nurse and anesthesiologist came and talked to us. Then they took him away. Jeff and I had waterfall eyes. Seeing the top of that little blonde head roll through those big doors *sigh* just made us feel sad. This was it. This was heart surgery on our baby.

We felt fairly prepared for this. We put this in God's hands because we are completely helpless in all of this. Zero control. Usually I struggle in zero control situations, this time though, I’m sure through all the prayer we have and are still receiving, this time -- I’m ok with that. I know that sounds weird but I just have a peace. Jeff too. It’s gotta be the prayers because that’s sooo not like us. We’re planners and do-ers. No can plan or do in this situation – yet we had peace.

Waiting for us in the waiting room were our parents, Jeff’s brother and my uncle Jerald. He’s a hospital chaplain by profession so he has just a little bit of experience in these situations. One of my coworkers who happened to be in Dallas also came and waited and gave me a giant hug. I had no idea that her daughter (who is a college dancer) had also had heart surgery to repair a hole in her heart. That was some great heart-mom to heart-mom bonding right there. My uncle prayed over P and us a little while later and then we chatted. Jeff and I actually ate food, which was good. We had not done that yet that day. Kathy, Dr. M’s nurse practitioner came out to let us know that the surgery had started and everything was going well. Then we waited some more. We looked at the tracking board and it notified us that P was being sutured up and the surgery was ending. Dr. Mendeloff came out shortly holding a specimen jar with 3 things in it. The "things" were piece of Pierson’s aorta. He showed us the coarctation and it was just mind boggling. We’re going to try to doctor up the picture where you can see the coarctation better. If you have a ball point pen around pick it up. Look at the tip or pen that you write with. The opening that P’s heart was trying to get oxygenated blood to his body through was that small. It’s supposed to be muuuch bigger than that. Think 2.5 sonic straws wide. That was fantastic to see and was also just another reassurance that God has been with us the whole time. He also had to remove a additional part of P’s aorta that was too narrow as well. This absolutely would have killed Pierson if it had not been caught. Your child having heart surgery is hard, but not a tragedy. Losing our child absolutely would have been a tragedy. Thank you Lord for Dr. Adams taking this seriously. Thank You Jesus for putting us with Dr. Laird who gave us an accurate diagnosis. Thank you God for putting us in the hands of Dr. Mendeloff… the miracles you use his hands for God… indescribable.

About 10 minutes after Dr. Mendeloff came out the surgical team rolled Pierson by us to take him to the ICU. The anesthesiologist, Dr. Campaigne stopped and let us look at him. I guess he could tell that I was dying to touch him and kiss him because he popped the railing down on the bed and said "Go ahead Mom, you can love on him." So I did. It was glorious and bittersweet. Mike and Jennifer had done a fantastic job preparing us for what to expect when P was out of surgery and in the ICU which was great because I think we would have been paralyzed if we hadn’t had that knowledge beforehand. Knowing that this surgery is behind us is like 1 lap down in a two mile run. We’re far from done but we’re in it.

This is how we saw P for the first time as they were rolling him into the ICU

Pieces of P's Aorta. The hole in the middle of the white is all the room he had for blood to go through. It should have been completely open

Surgical team rolling P into the ICU

How we found him an hour post-op

Pierson had a busy night last night. He woke up briefly and told us he was hurting, so our amazing night nurse Amber gave him some pain meds. It was like having a newborn. Every sound he made we were hovering over him. He asked to put on his "daddy shirt" at one point too. The daddy shirt he refers to is a white t-undershirt. He prefers to sleep in those. I told him not yet, but soon. Amber gave him medicines all night long, flushed all of his lines, and closely monitored his vitals. I have never seen anyone so proficient in IV meds and care. It was absolutely a sight to behold. She really made nursing look like the art form that it is. She took fabulous care of our boy. This morning around 3am they did a dressing change and we got to see P’s incision. Wow. It’s around 4 inches long. No wonder he’s hurting! We are thankful his sternum is in tact though. Kathy, Dr. M’s nurse practitioner came by around 5 and pulled his chest tube. Yae! 1 down.. like… I don’t know… 9 to go? Jeff and I "slept" a little… but we’re doing great today so we’re good.



Pierson is still in pain and still requiring a little oxygen. They were planning on d/cing the oxygen and pulling most of his lines… getting him to eat icechips, then food, then up to walk but that’s on hold for now. His blood pressure is still pretty high and he’s on a lot of hypertensive meds to keep it down. It has to be kept down so the sutures on his aorta stay in good shape and can heal. His body had adjusted so well to not have a fully functioning aorta that it’s taking a little bit for his body to get the message that it’s ok to drop the blood pressure. He will be on an oral hypertension medication after he is out of the hospital for a few months. He took his first oral dose (on top of his IV dose) this morning like a champ! He’s moving a little bit slower than "expected" but that’s ok. God is still good and is still healing our boy. He got up to walk right before he went to bed tonight and it was painful. He wanted me to carry him but I couldn’t, he had to do this to get better. He still has more milestones to reach tomorrow before we can leave ICU and go to a regular room. Pray that he reaches these milestones soon as they will put us one step closer to resuming life as normal.

We can not thank you enough for praying for our precious Pierson and our family. God hears the cries of His people. All of the sweet emails, facebook messages, etc have been incredible. My company prayed for P pretty much all day yesterday which is way humbling. It’s wonderful to work for a faith based company every day --- but on days like these and times like this, knowing that your co-workers, even the ones you don’t work directly with or even in the same part of the southwest with are praying is immensely incredible. Also the 4^th and 5^th graders from Southmont learned about what was going on with P yesterday because our children’s pastor came up to the hospital to visit us. She told us that without any prompting from her they stopped everything and all prayed over P. Yeah, that makes me cry when I write that. These kids don’t even know him yet they cared enough to approach the throne of grace! Our minister and his wife came by tonight on their way to kid’s camp here in Dallas and they took pics of P to show the kids. I told them to make sure we know how grateful we are for them and their prayers.

Please keep those prayers coming! Pray fervently. Pray that Pierson’s blood pressure regulates itself, pray that his pain is under control and resides soon. Pray that he has a restful night tonight. Pray for the lasix to do their magic and help him release the fluid his body is so desperately trying to hold on to. Pray for complete, whole and full recovery. This hospital and the ICU are wonderful but we would like to go home soon because that means our boy is better.


Visit from his favorite aunt and uncle



Wagon ride around the CHICU



P on his walk tonight