Continuing to Recover Well

Right now I am sitting the parent waiting area while the surgeon and surgical team are in Rowan's ICU room. The rooms convert into operating rooms, so they don't have to wheel him down to the OR when they close his chest.

They leave their rib cages open and the incision location open as well post-op to allow for swelling. Now that Rowan's kidneys are doing well and he has reduced his swelling substancially, they are closing up his ribcage and sewing him shut.

After this, they'll let him adjust and monitor him for a while and then start working towards getting him off the respirator, significantly lowering his sedatives, getting his digestive system to function (for the first time ever), and letting him move towards being fully recovered. These things will all take a few days.

Yesterday, we had breakfast provided by a group called Heart2Heart. They had several "heart kids" ranging from ages 11-26 who are doing wonderful. The 26 year old is training for a half marathon right now. It was nice to see so many success stories and a reminder that it will not be like this forever.

We found an IHOP that was open to eat at, Skyped with my family to see Evelyn and let her open some of our presents for us and show us her favorite new toys, and managed to get a pretty good night's rest. It didn't really feel like Christmas yesterday. To be honest, any sacrifice, even missing Christmas, is NOTHING at all when your little boy is still here. Not all of the families in the CICU have been so lucky. Our little boy is still here. Our daughter is blissfully content with her extended family, and my husband and I are together. We couldn't ask for anything else.