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.