CLICK HERE FOR FREE BLOGGER TEMPLATES, LINK BUTTONS AND MORE! »

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Cooper the Trooper (day #2)




Day 2 started out good. He was a little less sedated that morning so I was able to hold him. It surprised me how different things were from last time. Last year he was sleeping for almost 3 days straight and this time his eyes were fluttering and he was flinching a bit just a few hours after surgery. It was amazing to hold him, but he still had his 2 chest tubes, tons of monitors on him, and 3 different iv's and leads and pacer wires everywhere so it was a difficult task, but one that I of course didn't mind:) He was doing so great that the nurses said he would probably be able to go up to the floor that night if we could get him to wake up a bit and eat. I was so excited to see some of those tubes disappear and I couldn't wait to see his beautiful blue eyes...

After moving him around a bit and holding him he was a little irritated. He started to cry and get upset so they gave him some more pain meds and told us that we could try again later, but after we put him down things only got worse...He continued to cry and as he did he held his breath. He had never done this before so it scared me to death! He turned blue and then purple and his little body was so tight we couldn't even control him. Even the nurse acted a little freaked out so I fumbled through all the tangled cords and picked him up. He calmed down for awhile, but as the day progressed he did it again several times and later that afternoon he held his breath for so long that he seriously turned black and passed out!!! I was holding him in my arms when it happened and the nurses and Judd and I tried to settle him down and talk him through it like we had done before but nothing was working and he was not looking good...We frantically tried to move him back to his crib and as we did he pulled out his art line and blood went shooting everywhere, it was seriously like in the movies! Nurses and Dr's rushed in to help and I had no idea what was happening, I was covered in blood and my baby was passed out on the table...I was so scared and I felt like I was going to pass out too, Judd yelled for someone to get me out of there and one of the nurses grabbed my arm and pulled me into the hall.

A few seconds later Cooper started to breathe again and I could hear him cry but I was still so upset...No one could figure out why he was doing this so they decided to do an emergency ECHO to make sure he wasn't hypertensive. I really started to panic when I heard that. I had been worrying about his lungs all along and we were told that that was one of the main reasons why he needed the surgery in the first place. His heart was working so hard because of the scar tissue that was surrounding it that his lungs were being effected.

They had us leave the PICU and rushed in the ECHO machine and began sedating him. Judd and I went into the sleep room and just prayed that he would be ok and that his lungs would be ok and that we could figure out what was wrong with him. I was so overwhelmed and emotional and I couldn't imagine having to deal with lung problems on top of all of this. We were pretty scared for awhile but the cardiologist came in and talked to us and said that they ECHO looked great. It was such a relief!

After talking to Cooper's surgeon, his cardiologist, the anesthesiologist, and several nurses we decided that since there was nothing wrong with his lungs that it was most likely a combination of all of the meds he was taking that were making him act so strange and also the fact that he was scared to death and upset everytime he opened his eyes...We decided that it would be best to just keep him heavily sedated through the night and let him rest and then in the morning we would pull all of the tubes and iv's and take him off of all of his meds and let him wake up on his own. We all agreed that would be best and we spent the entire night comforting him and trying to get him through the night without holding his breath again. Judd and his dad gave him a blessing that he would be comforted and calm and I think after that we all felt a lot better.

Judd and I both slept in his room and took turns sitting by his bedside. Throughout the night he kept calling out mommmmy.....dadddddy.....owwwwwie.... and we would just rub his head and try to comfort him back to sleep. It was the cutest/saddest thing ever! We couldn't wait for morning to come...

1 comments:

AEllsworth

Hi...
I'm not even sure how I came across your blog anymore :) When I get spare time I love to "heart blog" (catching up on or finding new heart blogs). I have a little heart man as well and I had to comment. I'm so glad Cooper is doing so well now but my heart just went out to you as I read this post. We have already been through 1 open heart and have 2 more to go so I couldn't help crying reading this. You have a beautiful family and I am so glad things have turned out well despite the bumps in the road like this one. I hope things continue to go great for your family and especially your little man.

Post a Comment