We're Home!

After spending the weekend in the PICU, we are finally home!! After 7 blooddraws, 3 heel pricks, and an IV... Owen had enough. All of his bloodwork and cultures came back negative and he is feeling great! His white blood count was elevated to 22 and the norm is 9-11, so this was cause for concern as it indicated an infection. Today, it was down to 10.5...HORRAY!!! The cardiologist wanted to keep him one more day just to monitor him, but I convinced him otherwise. After we were all packed up and ready to leave, Dr. Cohen came in and said, let's just do a blood tranfusion while you're here. Are you kidding me? This would have meant, another blood draw, another IV and a 2 hour transfusion. So, I politely declined stating that Owen wanted to go home and needed a break. I was shocked with the Dr. said, "Okay, Mom knows best!"

We'll have a three week break before we're back at PCH for his Cardiac Catheterization. This with be a 24 hr ordeal and he'll be zonked out with anesthesia. I gave him permission to do a blood transfusion then :).

We are happy to be back home and I'm especially happy to get a shower and sleep in my own bed tonight.

Owen is tuckered out!!! I personally like the big pool of drool that Owen is leaving on Daddy's pillow!

ER to PICU

We had a rough day Friday... poor Owen was a fussypants all day and just wasn't feeling like himself. I couldn't put him down, he wouldn't take a bottle and he was grunting with his breathing. He finally crashed at around noon and slept until 4:30ish. When he woke up, he had a temp of 101 and just felt ick. The typical baby would get some tylenol and lovin' and be fine. Not Owen... we were told to go to Phx Children's ER just to rule anything out. I took Owen down and didn't have to wait in the germ infested ER as they already had a bed ready for him when I got there... he gets VIP treatment!!

After two IV pokes in each hand, a heel prick, a catheder for urine samples, a chest xray, echocardiogram, EKG, swabs up his nose and finally an IV in his foot... he was admitted to the PICU at midnight. I have to mention that during ALL these procedures... he didn't cry but once when they swabbed his nose. Not when they stabbed him with needles to draw blood did he make a peep...he just looks at the nurses with his big baby blues and makes their hearts melt!! The only procedure I refused was the spinal (this is where they stick a needle in their spine to draw fluid)... not happening!!

Anyway...all of his blood tests and rsv tests came back negative. His chest xray was clear. His echo was beautiful. The only thing we're waiting on is the cultures that can take 72 hours to finish growing. Meanwhile, the 12 and 18 hr cultures have also come back negative. He is feeling much better today and will spend another night or two in the PICU just to be monitored since his white blood count is a little elevated (which could indicate an infection). He is happy today and LOVES the attention and hugs he gets from the nurses he had from our previous stay.

We are happy that it's nothing serious and we have our happy Owen back.

HLHS Info

I get asked a lot of questions about Owen's heart and surgeries and it's hard to explain the anatomy. I found these on another heart baby's blog and thought they were fantastic! If you click on the images they enlarge so you can see them better! (For those of you that are getting old and you still can't read the images...you can look at the bottom right hand corner of your screen for the magnifying glass that has a 100% by it...all you do is click it and the screen resolution gets larger.)

This shows Owen's first surgery....the Norwood.

This shows all 3 surgeries.

This one shows a normal heart and the one on the right shows the function of a heart that has been through all 3 surgeries.

AMAZING!!!!