The longest day EVER

I have officially lost track of the days. So let me start at the beginning to figure it out. First thing Monday morning we have to get mr man ready to go. Not a problem he is set and can not wait. ( As you can tell he understood what was going to happen but not fully the extent of what it would be like. Before he is able to get dressed we have to wash him down with some special wipes. Will is not going to have that. He informs me that he does not need to do that because he is not stinky since he took a good shower sunday night. Now mind you that this is being said while he sniffs himself and says see not stinky! I informed him that this was not to help him not stink but to kill the germs. He reminded me ever so sweetly "mom the shower washed the germs off!" Long story short there I Won he was washed down and then we were on our way. We arrived here for surgery at Stanford's Children's hospital. We got here at about 10 am after getting stuck in some nasty traffic. Everything went very smoothly that morning until they told us that he was not going back for surgery until 1:40 in the afternoon. We were not thrilled but these things happen.

The PACU ( Pre- Anesthesia Care Unit)

We all travel into the PACU where Will gets his giggle juice. This in theory is to help him relax. As you can guess this was not the case for my darling William. Heck no that would be to simple. My son has the reverse effect and starts getting hyper and well extremely goofy. This is great fun for all involved.. no really it was. He soon there after is taken to the holding area that we can not go with him to. He said good bye and that he would see us after his surgery.. then told the nurse that he was ready to be surgeried. We take our leave of him and head to the family waiting room.

The Wait

When we arrive in the waiting room we are told that we will be taken on a tour of the CVICU and that we will meet with our social worker. But seeing as this is going to be such a long process and we were both starving( poor Will was sooo hungry as well) we said that we would go grab a bite to eat and then come back. we took the handy dandy pager and went on a short walk. Come to find out the pager is not worth its weight in plastic! It has such a limited range it does not even work on the 2nd floor! Any way they had our cell numbers so off we went. We walked over to the Stanford mall and back. Ok let me just say the only store that I could afford was Gap... and that was pushing it! Brad and I both joked about me going into Cartier or Coach to pick out my Christmas present! When we returned we took our tour and found out that at what was then almost 3 pm Will had only JUST gotten into surgery. We waited a little while to talk to our social worker and then planned to get walking again. All said and done we had only just started walking when we get a call from my MOM telling us that Will is out of surgery. They called the HOME number to let us know. I think that the Area code being different should have made them check again but what the heck! We RUN back in to talk to the doctor and miss him.

Up to CVICU ( cardiovascular Intensive care unit)

We knew coming up stairs ( to the second floor where the pager does not work) that it would be about 45 minutes from the time he was brought into the room until we could finally come and see him. Seeing as he was out cold it was not going to be an issue. We waited and waited and waited and then finally Brad went in to see why almost an hour and a half later we were still WAITING!!! They were Just coming to get us! SHUUURRREEE that is it. We are able during our wait to talk to the surgeon who was thrilled with the surgery and how well it went. He stated that Will should never need another heart surgery for repair. YIPPEEEE!

Reunited

The first night we were told that they were going to try to remove Will from the ventilator . AWESOME. Or so we thought. If you have never seen this I hope you never have to! They bring down the meds and he wakes up. Combative to say the least trying to pull every tube he can get his hands on. Chest tube included... talk about fun. I am holding him down trying to keep him from ripping everything out as he starts to fight his vent. Bloody foamy phlegm and water come up into his vent tube. If you can imagine the sound of someone drowning this is the sound he is making. Add to this that he is absolutely terrified and out of sorts so he is franticly looking around while gasping. Every time this happens add to that fun rushes of "blood" coming out of his chest tube along with all of the regular bells and whistles that happen in a hospital. Fun right.... well this was the first night over and over and over again. Until that is about 3 in the morning when they say Too much fluid on his lungs... maybe tomorrow. I at this point have been up for almost 24 hours... woo whoo party time!