First Post-Fontan Night

((Sorry if this post is ramble-y... I've been up for over 26 hours straight...))

Our first night post-Fontan was a quiet one... exactly what you want after a major heart surgery! Chase slept very well with the help of his sedation and pain meds. It's a tricky balance to keep all of the numbers (heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, etc.) happy, but his team has been dedicated to him since he arrived from the OR and have kept him very comfortable. That makes this process much easier for me! He was having some issues keeping his heart rate up, so they decided to use the pacing wires that were temporarily placed during surgery to "dial in" his heart rate exactly where they wanted it (99).

They slowly weaned his ventilator support and were ready for a CPAP trial at 3:30 AM. This is when they let him breathe solely on his own to ensure he is able to support himself before removing the tube. His blood gasses all looked wonderful and he was slowly weaning off his sedation drips, which meant he began getting agitated with the tube. It's heartbreaking to see his tears and to watch him try to cry, but no sound comes out. :( The nurse and respiratory tech agreed he was ready, but they needed the doctor to sign off on it first and give the verbal go-ahead. Two pages and 45 minutes later, she finally arrived and agreed! Whew!

Chase was a champ for the removal! They had a bunch of tape on his face to take off (which went waaaay better than I expected), and pulled the tube quickly and without any issues. He also had an orogastric (OG) tube that went from his mouth to his stomach that was removed at the same time. So by around 5:00 AM, he was down two tubes and gained a nasal cannula of 3 liters of oxygen. By about 5:30 AM, they moved him down to 2 liters with sats at a very comfortable 90.

The plan is to keep him comfy and let him rest until rounds in the morning, around 8AM. He may have other plans, though. Literally about 20 minutes after the tube was out he was asking to play on my iPhone!! Haha! I told him if he would rest until 6:00 AM, that maybe he could play with my iPhone then. So far, so good!

Before & After extibation.


It's now about 6:15 AM and he's still resting peacefully. I'm sure he'll remind me about the iPhone as soon as he wakes up again!

Holding steady!



Thanks for checking on our boy! We appreciate the love, support and prayers!