OHS Anniversary

Foremost on my mind today is December 10, 2008. The day Little J had his open heart surgery. I remember so many things about that day, most of them not relating directly to the heart surgery. I remember eating an early breakfast at some restaurant, maybe Baker's Square. I didn't want to go, but Warren made me. He said it was going to be a long day and we'd best get some food in us for sustenance. I remember fretting over feeding Little J a bottle of Pedialyte. He couldn't nurse at all after 6am and I wondered if he would except the bottle. I wondered how I was going to pump under the weight of the day and how it all would work out. He took the bottle like a champ and the pumping, honestly I don't even remember how it worked out, but it must have. I remember the anesthesiologist giving us the run down on what would happen and when to expect Brandi, the nurse, to make her first appearance in the waiting room for a update. I remember the anesthesiologist saying ok, I'll take him. And I said, just like this, as he reached his arms out for him. And then he carried him off into what seemed like a black hole. We were then escorted through a door into the surgical waiting room where a variety of faces stared at my tear streaked face. A chipper middle aged woman assured us that this was the place for us and that we could expect regular updates from our surgeon's nurse, Brandi. She showed us to the drink station and then took her place behind the curved desk again. I remember fidgeting around looking at the pages in the book I brought along. I remember lots of updates from Brandi, he's been prepped, the incision was made, he's on bypass, the first repair is finished, the second repair is finished, he's off bypass - his heart is beating on its own, drainage tubes are in and he's been stitched up, he's in recovery. I remember the much needed distraction my uncle brought when he stopped by the waiting room. And then the next 24 hours of memory are blurry at best except for eating a bag of Salsitos and half of a brown apple from the almost closed hospital deli. He stayed in the hospital for a week, then 8 weeks of scooping and now here we are today. If not for the scar on his chest one would never even know everything he went through.

I praise God everyday for the doctors' knowledge and the wonderful nurses at Children's Hospital of Milwaukee.