Update on our not so good news

I wanted to write an update to our last post. The plan right now is to continue Reid on diuretics to completely "dry" him out, they said this will take several days.  So, if his fluid levels are where they would like them then we can proceed with another echo cardiogram on Monday or Tuesday. This echo will tell the doctors how to proceed. We spoke with the surgeon last night and there are 3 ways this could go. If the echo comes back showing the original small leakage that was originally found in the operating room, then great, we may need to do nothing and we can get the heck out of here. If it comes back still showing the considerable sized leak in the middle of the valve as the last echo showed then we go back into the operating room to first try and fix it, and if that doesn't work than they will move on to removing and replacing it with a valve.  If we do indeed need to go back into the OR I guess the possibility of another fix is a good thing....I didn't think this was an option. But, still of course my prayer is option #1. If this is the route we get to go...Nan P. even you all the way over in Ireland will be able to hear the squealing of our tires from our car getting out of here...Rrrrrrrr.

Reid is handling all of this like such a champ. He is so sweet and dosel right now. When Luke got here this morning he asked Reid to say, "da"...that's what Reid calls Luke. Reid replied with the sweetest sounding "da" and then gave a little giggle. Here are some pictures of Reid. The top one is from today sleeping on his tummy, which we are so excited he can do now, now that the chest tube and...the oxygen up his nose are both gone, Yeah!!!!

Not so good news... specific prayer request

Okay, so we have been so excited feeling like Reid's recovery from heart surgery was going so well. But, we got the results tonight from the echo cardiogram taken earlier today....and the small amounts of blood cells they saw coming through the valve on the initial echo in the operating room is now showing a significant leak, and in a different location in the valve altogether. This is not good news. This could be because he has a lot of fluid in his chest as well as some swelling which is causing so much pressure, making the leaks present themselves. The doctors removed some of the fluid from his right side with a needle and are putting him on a diuretic drip through the night to see if this helps. They will perform another chest xray and echo in the morning to determine where we go from here. The cardiologist came in tonight and the dreaded words "possible valve replacement" were spoken. Noooooooo!!!!!!!!! This can't be happening!!! My little guy has been through so much already. I can't image him going into the operating room again. I am back on my knees for this littlest son of mine! A specific prayer request would be that by morning the excess fluid would be completely gone so they could see what we were dealing with. Actually as his mom I am praying even beyond this and praying for a miracle...praying that when they perform the echo they tell the Foreman family that they no longer see any leakage, I'd love if you joined us. I posted a picture of "the Foreman family" but little Mr. Reid is often not a fan of the camera so in addition I posted two recent pictures of him that makes me smile... Firefighter Reid!

Seeing glimpses of Reid's personality...through recovery

Reid has been so irritated during his recovery. He seems so uncomfortable and having a hard time getting into a  sound sleep. The doctors have been trying to stear away from any sedation meds for him, for fear that his breathing  would get lazy... and we absolutely do not want him back on the breathing tube as that was such a huge victory for us to have that removed so quickly. So they decided to try letting me hold him to see if he would rest more peacefully...and he did except he was still a bit squirmy and managed to wrap all his cords around himself at one point, sigh :). We are certainly giving his nurse a run for her money! 

While he was in my arms Toby and I tried talking with him and reminded him of all of his favorite things. When we mentioned bubbles....he started signing bubbles. We were so shocked because he is still so out of it, his eyes were even closed! So, we pressed on and asked him more things. He and Luke taught Reid the sign for snake (I have to look this up to see if this is the real sign or if my guys are making this up...but it is to stick your tongue out), when we said the word snake you could see him trying so hard to stick his tongue out, we saw enough to know he understood. Later in the day we tried again. One of Luke's favorite things to do is to command his brother to demonstrate karate moves. If you say "Hiya" Reid sits on the floor and lifts one leg way up over his head. This makes Luke squeal with laughter so we hear "Hiya" around our house a lot. So...though Reid was back in his crib and a little grumpy... when we said Hiya he lifted one leg....just a little. Yup, just little glimpses of our little guy's personality shining through all of this hard recovery stuff, and mom and dad are so pleased!! ..."Hiya!!!!!!" :)

We are feeling...so loved!!

Yesterday we had a surprise visitor at the hospital once Reid was out of surgery... I have mentioned on my blog before about a cardiologist who came into our lives the day Reid was born. Not only were we initially impressed with his ability to draw a diagram of our son's heart and the details of its defects upside down on a hospital paper towel (we still have that paper towel by the way, I used to carry it around with me because I always got so tongue tied trying to explain to people about Reid's heart) but more importantly he was the first person besides family to look us in our eyes and congratulate us on our son. He walked us through this new journey of a child with a heart condition and was always reassuring and encouraging. He walked us through our first heart surgery and I must say we felt Reid was in such good hands under his care. This past summer he took a position at a different hospital so we are now under different doctor. But....even though we have not seen him in months, even though he is no longer Reid's cardiologist, even though this hospital was now out of his way........he showed up to check on our Reid. How is that for care?? Dr. Loo we were so deeply touched, not only will you always be our favorite cardiologist but a friend for life.

Okay so that was yesterday....

Today....

A respiratory therapist came into our room to thank us for the turkey wraps. I told him he had the wrong family. He said, "no this is Reid's room right?" I said, "yes, but maybe they were from someone who had the last name Reid". He smiled and said, "hang on...I want to show you something". He handed me the piece of paper pictured here and tears began to run down my face...

To: NICU Nurses, especially those caring for Reid

From: The Grizzlies (on behalf of Cheri and Toby)

Please take care of our littlest cub, as well as mom, dad, and brother. (Please make sure Toby and Cheri get some food also)

Love:

The Grizzlies

I had a lump in my throat as I tried to explain to him and now 3 other nurses in our room who the Grizzlies were. I met an amazing group of moms when Luke was in preschool. Many of the boys had been in the same preschool classes for a couple of years. When Pre-K ended and everyone was going on to different schools in the area for kindergarten we decided to try and keep our boys together and bonded by registering an Adventure Guide Group through the local YMCA. The preschool our children went to was known in the neighborhood as "Teddy Bear Preschool" because it had a big wooden teddy bear out front. So, since our "teddy bears" were moving on and growing bigger we decided to graduate them to "Grizzlie Bears" hence the name, The Grizzlies, for our group. The Grizzlies along with other family and friends joined us for our local Buddy Walk in November, which is where the picture is from. Grizzlie boys and your fantastic moms... you blessed us so much today by this incredibly kind gesture!!!! And, you helped us score points with the staff...always a good thing!!

Also thank you to everyone for the prayers, comments, phone calls, emails, and home cooked meals that have been bestowed upon us by you all!!

We are feeling so loved!! THANK YOU!!!!

Big sigh of relief...surgery went well!

I haven't had a chance to update on Reid's progress yet, so much has been happening.... but HUGE sigh of relief for us as surgery went really well!!

The surgeon actually found more defects that needed to be repaired than anticipated so he took care of those issues as well as worked on the mitral valve which was leaking and the main concern. The last time Reid had this surgery in August of 2007 the Dr. actually had to create 2 valves out of 1 with the tissue that was there. One of the newly created valves was working great...but the other one was leaking so his lungs were filled with fluid. When they went in to repair the valve yesterday it had actually twisted so they fixed that and tightened up the stitching from before. However they found that the back flap of that valve did not have much material to work with. They added man made material to help construct that valve better. The initial echo cardiogram they performed while he was still in the operating room still showed some minor leakage, but in comparison to before a vast improvement! The Dr. was happy with what he saw though and felt it was extremely successful. The fabulous news about it all is that his body is not requiring much medication, he is doing most of the recovery on his own. They even took out his breathing tube last night which to me is HUGE because last go around he did not come off of it until the night of day 8. He had basically been in a coma state until that time. He is a little agitated and they are giving him morphine....I say bring it on and give some to mom too!!!!!!!

Here are some pictures of our little trooper.