11/12/2009

God thought it would be best to remind us VERY early this morning that He is the one in control of every detail of our current situation with Baby Malachi. Throughout this entire ordeal, He has been faithful to evidence His soveriegnty over each and every moment of our lives. We were up at Chi's bedside by 630 and were able to each have a chance to hold him before they took him to prep for surgery. Well, there had been some misunderstanding on the NICU as we hadn't received a call from surgery saying they were on their way and our nurse practitioner noticed that surgery had come for another baby on the floor who was supposed to be scheduled as the second case.. AFTER malachi. At this point, we thought that they wouldn't get to Chi until at least 10:00 or so. John was calm and I was a bit perturbed. John quickly reminded me that God has been in control this whole time, and that it would be HIGHLY unlikely that He would all of a sudden stop reigning over this situation. I had to succomb to the fact that he was right and our God was still faithful and true. We decided that we should still pack up our things and finish getting ready for the day, so we headed back down to the RMD House. As soon as we had opened the door, Chi's nurse called and said that surgery had just arrived to take Baby Chi down to the operating room and that we should head up to see him ASAP. It was almost as if God just wanted to give us a gentle reminder that He is, and was, and always will be in control.

Well, here is pretty much the rundown of the day. Those of you who followed along on facebook will find this vaguely familiar...

800ish: He is officially in the operating room. Needing Him more than ever. God has already reminded us this morning that He and He alone is in control of all things and every detail.

1200ish: Anesthesia just finished placing the arterial line and another peripheral IV. So they have those and the central line in place for the rest of the surgery.

(we were super thankful for a friend who is a nurse here at Riley who was able to bypass all the visitor stipulations that they currently have here at the hospital and brought us qdoba for lunch! she also brought a few movies for us to watch on the laptop as we wait and wait and wait for Chi to recover)

100ish: Baby Chi is all hooked up to the heart/lung machine. It's doing all of the blood pumping and oxygenation for him. So far so good.

145ish: 145 update: The actual operation has started. Open heart surgery for my two week old baby. Pretty surreal.

330ish: Surgeon still doing his thing. About to wrap up the procedure (which we understand to mean ten minutes to an hour and ten minutes) and then he will need to come out of general anesthesia and be moved to his new room.

430ish: Waiting to meet with the doctor at this point. Not sure how long it will be.

530ish: Report from the surgeon is that blood gas levels and vital signs are stable. He is off heart/lung machine. Chest is closed at skin and then hopefully Monday they will be able to go in and close at the sternum. He will pretty much be completely sedated for the next few days and unresponsive. Dr said the next 24 to 48 hours will be crucial.

At about 6:30 we were then able to see him briefly before we ran down to get some food as they were still getting him settled into his new room as he has been transferred to a different floor (maybe more about that tomorrow). We will be in this new home for a few days to a week or so depending on how well he recovers. He will obviously be there at least until Monday! Thankfully, he looked better than John and I both had expected. We were given a heads up by our NICU nurse that he would probably be pretty swollen. She was right. From the waist up he's super puffy and obviously limp because of all the pain meds and things that they have him on. I don't really know what I was expecting, but what I saw was better. It was definitely comforting to see his little chest going up and down with each breath--being reminded and knowing that each is a gift from God.

It's going to be a crazy next few days. I'm not looking forward to the times when Chi's monitor will start going crazy and the rush of doctors and nurses who will jump in to try and correct the situation, but I think it would be wise for us to expect them. At this point, we are trusting in our real and intimate God who delights in EVERY detail of our lives. To Him be the glory!