Here at the hospital...

It is challenging to relax at all, knowing that Caleb is still in the "riskiest" part of his hospital stay, but at least he has come out of open-heart surgery.  The 3 1/2 hour surgery went well, was exactly as planned.  The doctors say that the riskiest period is from the beginning of surgery through 12 hours post-op.  Caleb is 2 hours in and doing ok so far.  It was easier to face the surgery today after seeing how well Caleb handled the heart cath yesterday.  Here are a couple pictures from LAST night after he recovered from the cath.

Right now we are sitting in Caleb's room, in the intensive care unit, waiting on him to wake up.  He came out of surgery at 11:30 a.m., so he is not out of the woods until it's been a full 12 hours with no problems.  Also, he is still on a breathing tube and not breathing on his own yet.  The doctor hopes to take out the tube and see Caleb breathing on his own sometime tonight, but it might be tomorrow.  He has struggled with breathing on his own in the past, so they will take it slow.  Here is how Caleb looks right now:

I want to just pick him up and snuggle him, but I won't be able to hold him for a couple more days.  I forgot how intense it is to see him all hooked up and with his huge bandage.  It takes some getting used to.


We just met with a doctor, who said Caleb is doing "great" so far.  In fact, he said, "He's just been a star".  But it's really difficult to take any comfort in that... it seems Caleb always has done well with the procedure itself, and then surprises us just when we think he's out of the woods.  So I'm tentatively pleased with how he's doing so far.


Please pray for:


1) Caleb to begin breathing on his own so he can get off the ventilator.  This is the first big hurdle.
2) For him to be comfortable and for us to be as relaxed as possible.  It is so hard to watch him be uncomfortable and frustrated and not be able to do anything for him.
3) Pray for no fluid to build up on his lungs.  This is the most common problem after heart surgery and would keep us in the hospital much longer.


We'll update again soon.  Right now we're going to try to rest until Caleb wakes up.  I don't know who is more exhausted, us or him!