9:00 update

We are home. We spoke briefly after the surgery with Malachi's heart surgeon. He seemed to be pleased with the operation and is hopeful that this will delay the Rastelli procedure until Malachi is at least a year. If we could go 9 more months without heart surgery, that would be amazing! The surgeon is hopeful that this procedure will facilitate in providing more oxygen to the body leading to a greater oxygen saturation throughout.

He was not transferred back up to the NICU after surgery and was instead moved to PICU (same recovery area after his first heart surgery). Normally, we would easily have to wait an hour or two before going back to see him post-op. Knowing that, John and I just walked down so that we were aware of what room he was in, meet the nurse, and get a phone number. He will be surrounded with all sorts of medical staff all night, so we will call in numerous times to check in and see how things are going.

Instead of waiting in the lobby for hours before being able to stay back there, we decided to go get Emerson and spend the rest of the night home with her. So that's where we are. I did call as soon as we got home around 9:00 to see how he was doing. The nurse did tell me that he still was not what would be considered "stable." On at least two occasions since being moved to the PICU, his sats had dropped into the teens and his blood pressure also dropped. The CO2 on his first blood gas was not optimal, but this last one they took was within normal range of limits. I will definitely be calling throughout the night (sorry, I will not be updating this with each call *wink*).

It was very nice, though, to be greeted at the PICU by a familiar face. One of the nurses that took good care of Malachi his first time in the PICU has been keeping up with the blog and knew that he would most likely be headed their direction today. She was on the look out! For that, we were very grateful! That's all for tonight... long day... must sleep... hopefully I will be out as soon as my head hits the pillow AND that emma will sleep in (or at least agree to snuggle with me for most of the morning).