Becca's Story Part 4: TRANSPLANT DAY
How do you prepare yourself for your little 2 month old to be getting a Heart Transplant??? Well to be honest I have no idea! I don't think anything could have possibly prepared us. When we got to the hospital on Saturday, January 16th they were doing all sorts of labs. Of course, our nurses all came in and congratulated us and gave JR some snuggles and good words.
We had then gotten the word that JR would officially be getting his hero heart on Sunday, January 17th at 2 pm. Joe and I got to the hospital Sunday by 10 am. I immediately needed to hold him and snuggle with him for as long as I could! Since we had to stop feeding him JR had become quite fussy as the day went on. Many nurses and doctors were in and out of the room talking with us about everything.
The nurses had an absolutely horrible time getting an IV started on JR they actually had to call the flight for life team up to get his IV started! It was about 1:00 so an hour before they were going to be coming and taking JR down for surgery. He was so cranky and fussy, my mama instincts kicked in and I made up my own song that instantly calmed him!
" JR's getting a new heart today, heart today, JR's getting a new heart today and we are so happy!!"
It was then time for the anesthesiologist to take JR down for his life-saving surgery. We got one last picture together gave him hugs and kisses, said a prayer and he was off to the OR. A little while after they took JR down his surgeon Dr. Mitchell and his nurse came in to talk with us about how the Transplant was going to go.
They were getting him prepped, they were going to be putting him on bypass removing the old heart, and then would place his new heart. Dr. Mitchell was going to be doing some extra work on JR's superior vena cava to make it the perfect match for the new heart. They did tell us that his new heart was a little big so they might need to leave his chest open until the swelling goes down.
We were told the surgery could take anywhere from 12-16 hours! The nurse was going to be coming to JR's room frequently to give us updates. After that, they were off to save our son! We knew he was in good hands but still were nervous so many things could happen. A few hours later the nurse came in and told us JR was all prepped and ready they were just waiting for his new heart to arrive.
Joe and I watched the Ambo bay and landing pad wondering how his heart was being brought to us. A half-hour later the Nurse was back. " The Heart has arrived, Dr. Mitchell is just doing the reconstruction work and will then be placing the new heart. Holy smokes this was really happening JR was going to have a new and perfect heart!
Around 11 pm 9 hours after getting taken back for surgery Dr. Mitchell was in our room telling us that everything had gone extremely smoothly, he said it might have been one of the fastest transplants he has done! They were closing JR's chest and we would be able to meet him in the hall coming out of the OR.
There we stood staring down this hallway just waiting to see his hospital crib coming towards us. I can't explain to you how it felt seeing this amazing team of Dr.s coming down the hallway after your son had life-saving surgery. Seeing them coming towards us was in slow motion for me I'll never forget it! We got to the crib and the first thing Joe and I could say is...
"Wow he is so pink!!"
Everyone said he did great! We were then sent to the waiting room until they got JR on all of his medications that he needed and the nurses got up to date on everything that went on in the OR. About Midnight we were able to go into his room. This is when everything that happened in the past 48 hours hit me.
Our baby boy just lying there an insane amount of wires, tubes, IVs, pacer wires, and then to see the incision on his chest...Our son at one point in his life did not have a Heart in his chest, he didn't have a Heartbeat. He was kept alive by a machine while the doctors put his brand new heart in. We still have a hard time wrapping our heads around that one. We are so grateful for all of the amazing Doctors, anesthesiologists, nurses, and everyone else who helped make our son's transplant a success!
Our biggest thanks go out to the selfless families who donated their sweet baby's heart to our son. We will never be able to express our thanks enough.
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