We had lots of fun, but Jonas's breathing started to become labored again, and it was clear to me by the end of the weekend that we needed to take him to Miami Children's Hospital once again. I drove him down to the hospital around 11:00a.m. on Sunday the 5th. We spent the better part of the day in the Emergency room, before finally being admitted. Kris was working all day, but his mom came to hang out with us in the hospital room. Jonas was getting very sick, he was more fussy than I'd ever seen him. He always has such a happy disposition, but you could tell he was extremely uncomfortable. By late Tuesday, it was determined that he needed the second step in his three step heart repair. And so, we started to mentally and emotionally prepare for it again.
He was taken in for the procedure on December 8th: His four month birthday. We spent the day in the waiting room, biding time on Facebook and watching television as we waited for the next update. Strangely enough, as I scanned the news on Facebook, I discovered River Cuomo (The lead singer of Weezer, Jonas's namesake band) had been in a bad bus crash while on tour. He was in the hospital recovering at the same time Jonas was having his surgery. An odd coincidence, indeed.
I was pretty confident in Jonas's ability to recover quickly. He bounced back rather fast after the first surgery. The doctors also suggested that the recovery time on this procedure was shorter than the first for most babies. Unfortunately, this one was not to be as easy.
One day after surgery
Post-surgery, Jonas had fluid on his lungs. A new incision had to be made, under his left armpit, to drain some of the fluid. He was set back in recovery a few days from this, and we spent a long weekend wondering when he would start to improve.
Days crept closer to Christmas, and all I could think was that we'd be spending the first Christmas with our newborn son in a hospital.
He was having a hard time tolerating formula post-surgery. He had to be fed intravenously for a long time, and then transitioned back to pedialyte, which he absolutely hates.
Finally, formula was re-introduced, and he was able to keep it down. We counted down the days, making predictions as to when we'd be able to take Jonas home again.
On December 17th, we were given the walking papers, and got our boy ready to come home once again!
Resting up the day we left MCH
It would most certainly be wonderful to spend our first Christmas at home together as a family!
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI remember your little boy! We were in the large room in the cicu waiting for our son to have open heart surgery. Congratulations to you and your family for your little boy turning 1. YAY!
Michele