Happy Thanksgiving

We have a lot to be thankful for. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

Recovery Update & Thank You

The past few days have been all about Joey's recovery from surgery, and he is progressing nicely. Eric and I have been spending as much time in the hospital as we can with Joey.  We've been switching shifts because we still have Jonathan at home too.  It's been exhausting to say the least, but nothing in comparison to what Joey is going through.   He's been opening his eyes this week and following the voices of Eric and I, and we're very happy to see him up and alert.  

Joey got his chest closed this morning.   He is still hooked up to a lot of tubing, but that should gradually come off over the next few days.   They will begin feeding him my breast milk tomorrow. This is a very important step for Heterotaxy babies.  With the abdominal organs being on opposite sides, doctors want to look for any malrotation of the intestines, and any intestinal blockages.   There hasn't been any evidence for this being the case, but doctors will be monitoring closely during the initial feeding.   In a turn of events, poopy diapers are welcome and a GOOD thing!

They are planning to extubate Joey by mid week, and I've never looked more forward to hearing a baby cry.   This will mean that he will be breathing on his own, and more importantly, I GET TO HOLD HIM!  Minus the few minutes before surgery, I haven't been able to hold my little baby.  I can't wait to hold my little guy.  He's been such a little fighter through the whole process, he deserves lots of Mommy and Daddy hugs.   We're already so proud of him.

Switching gears, over the weekend, it was brought to my attention that a couple of Eric's friends from Michigan, David Anderson and Chris Pope, started a GoFundMe page for Eric and I. ( Link to site )  I instantly was brought to tears with the overwhelming generosity and support from our friends.  Eric and I haven't been very forthcoming with our story till it was almost time to go through with this.   The instant concern, support, and love that has come aboard, is extremely appreciated, and I can't even put into words the love that our family feels.   We have the greatest network of friends that anyone can ask for, and love all of you very much.   Eric and I were going to fight through most of this on our own, and it means the world to us that so many people care, and so many people are praying for us.

We will continue to updated you with progress as things happen.  We're hoping for a great week ahead, but we know everything is still one-day-at-a-time.  For now, Joey's going to watch the Lions beat the Patriots.  GO LIONS!!!

Joseph Ryan Dahlgren 11/17/2014

We are happy to introduce the newest addition to our family, Joseph Ryan Dahlgren. Joey was born on November, 17th at 4:10 p.m. He weighed in at 7 lbs. 10 oz. and was 22 inches long.

Labor was induced on Monday morning. The induction went smooth and the labor was quick. I was fortunate to hold Joey and Eric snapped a few pictures before he was rushed off to to NICU for evaluation, 

Within the first hour of life he was given oxygen and had an ultrasound of his heart to confirm the prenatal diagnosis. That same evening, Joey was transferred to the Pediatric Surgical Heart Unit (PSHU) where he would have a private room and be cared for by the team at Hope Children's Hospital. The children's hospital is connected to the main hospital so he was not a far walk away from my room in labor and delivery.

The next morning Joey had a cardio catheridization done.  This a procedure where an iv is inserted into a vein in the thigh that is run up to the heart.  Dye is then inserted and pictures are taken of the heart as the blood passes through.  The reason for doing this is that the veins in the heart are very difficult to see via ultrasound and the cardio cath could confirm their exact location, whether there was partial or total anomaly, and any obstructions. 

The cardio cath confirmed the doctors suspicions and Joey was scheduled for surgery that same afternoon.  All of the pulmonary veins in Joey's heart were hooked up incorrectly and had obstructions. The doctors needed to get them fixed before it became an emergency situation.  We got to hold Joey and send some time with him prior to surgery on Tuesday afternoon.

We were worried and concerned for our baby.  Not even 24 hours old, he was being taken into open heart surgery.  We got to walk him down to the surgery room and give him emotional, tear filled kisses goodbye. We were informed that the surgery would take 4-8 hours and we would receive updates every two hours on his condition. 

The first call came about an hour and a half after we had left him.  It was the nurse to say that Joey was doing well, they were just starting with the procedure, and we should be hearing from her again in two more hours.  The next call came right on schedule and Eric and I were shocked to hear that Joey has been taken off of the heart and lung machine (which functions as his life support during surgery) and his heart was functioning on its own.  We were informed that he would be back in his room in two hours and we could see him!  This surgery went really well and we were shocked at how fast it was. 

We were anxious to get back to our little guy and see him.  When we finally got over to him and we were greeted by our surgeon. He explained that everything went great, Joey was responding really well, and the next 48 hours were critical to his recovery. 

Today was spent tending to our little guy in the room. There isn't much that we can do besides be here for comfort.  The staff is excellent and they are providing top-notch care for our little boy.  We could not have really can't asked for a better team to care for Joey.   The tentative plan is to continue weaning Joey off of the various support tubes, seal up his chest on Friday, and hopefully extubate him around Thanksgiving.  We say tentative because everything is subject to change based on how Joey's progress is.  Everything has been going well, so we're hoping for continued progress.   

The past 72 hours has been quite the roller coaster of emotions.  The birth, the anticipation for answers, the tests, the surgery, everything has happened so fast.   The rapid turnaround was probably for the better because it was less time to worry, less time to panic.   Again, we've been blown away by the swift and smooth action of the Pediatric Heat Unit, and everything seems to be working very well.

For now, we're in recovery mode, and it will be exciting to see our little progress day by day.