Steve was still in Arizona and the day of Hunter's hopeful extubation was here. My hospital routine was to wake up, go grab coffee, wait for morning rounds and then leave to go back to RMH to take a shower, do a load of laundry, etc. This morning started exactly same. I had a cautious optimism that extubating Hunter would go well.
Rounds came and the first thing after the usual intro "This is Hunter Gross, our 6 week old born with undiagnosed critical aortic stenosis, X days post Ross procedure X days post closure..." the fellow says that the MRI results came back negative. I knew that was a good thing but then the ICU attending, Dr. Nelson, interrupted the fellow, looked right at me with a huge smile and said "That means normal. Hunter's brain show no injury" Of course, I started crying. Being on the heart and lung bypass machine, having a seizure, going into cardiac arrest, and having CPR performed on him all individually put him at risk for having brain injury....he had all of that and NO brain injury. Praise God. What a miracle!
Then they laid our the plan for the day. Extubate at around 2, finish coming off of all sedatives and pain meds, and move him to a big boy bed instead of the newborn warmer. I expressed that it all seemed like a lot and the same doctor who over the weekend told me she didn't trust him, told me that she knew he could do it and she wouldn't do all of this if she at all thought he wouldn't be okay.
It was going to be a big day, so I hurried to take a shower and get back. All of his meds were basically turned off by the time I got back. Crazy to see.
2 o'clock rolled around and it was time to hold our breaths that Hunter would take his first big ones on his own. I sat on my little bed/couch and watched nervously as they pulled the tube that had been breathing for him for a week out of his nose. They immediately put a nasal cannula in just for a little extra flow of oxygen. The fellow looked at me and told me to come look at him. This is what I saw......
This was the face looking at me. HUGE smiles as soon as that tube was out! His first big smiles at 6 weeks old. Everyone in the room was amazed. He was breathing great on his own, no dips in oxygen saturations, his rate was good. Hunter man was ready!
Dr. Starnes came to visit him again that afternoon. He said "Hunter is on a trail now" and he really was. According to nurses, he rarely visits patients after surgery. He operates at CHLA on Mondays and Thursdays, and at USC on the other days. He actually visited Hunter every Monday and Thursday that we were in the hospital.... even when we were on the step down floor. We were told by many that Hunter had pulled at the heart strings of the entire unit. Everyone from nurses, doctors, fellows, respiratory techs, surgical fellows, residents all came to see Hunter and give me hugs that day. It wasn't just me in that room that got to experience the joy of that day. I am sure it is days like that that keep these amazing people doing their jobs. And it was my little guy they were celebrating, when exactly a week before, none of them were sure that he would make it through the night.
In his big boy bed.
When the nurses changed shifts at 7, our day nurse, Wendy, told our night nurse that when she came in the morning she wanted me to be able to show her a picture of me holding my baby for the first time. Maide, our night nurse, made that happen. I was so incredibly nervous because I didn't want to hurt him, plus he still had his central line in his neck which totally freaked me out. But she told me he needed it, so of course I got over my nerves. I sat down and was literally shaking as she placed my 6 week old baby in my arms for the first time in almost 8 days. Tears immediately started streaming down my face. I had my boy in my arms. I felt the weight of him on me. Like I said, he was mine, and I got to keep him.
Absolute BLISS
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