In Recovery... Again

A quick post surgery update.

Dr. Herrington, the lead surgeon for Joey's pacemaker surgery, just came into the waiting room to tell us that all is well!  Joey is finishing up his surgery now and will be heading back to his room for recovery. Jamie and I have to wait in the waiting room until we are notified that he is all settled into his room.

The surgery took a little under two hours. He will return to the room with all of the "attachments" that he had after his first surgery; breathing tube, chest drain tube, temporary pacer wires in his abdomen, a main line IV in his neck, an arterial line in his arm, his PICC line in his leg, NG tube, and of course his newest accessory, his pacemaker. The recovery should go much quicker this time around and we hope to have most of the tubes and wires out by tomorrow. Once the breathing tube comes out we can continue his bottle feeds, but for now he will get nutrients through an IV and NG tube. They will test the pacemaker and then remove the temporary/external pacer wires. It is our understanding that his pacer box will be somewhat visible in his belly as it is place behind the muscle and his ribs, but there is not a whole lot of room for it in a tiny baby, so he will have a bulge until he grows a little bigger. He is also back on most all of the medicines, antibiotics and sedatives that he had just been weaned off of as well. We hope that the weaning goes as well this time as it did last time with no complications or withdrawals.

Thanks again for all of the support you have given us through Joey's a Heart a Journey so far. We can't wait to go see our boy! But until then, Jamie and I are trying to keep busy by working on a puzzle in the waiting room...