Echo, Feeding, and a New Bed

This morning Jack had a 2 hour echocardiogram. He wasn't too happy about it, but it wiped him out and he slept most of the rest of the day wrapped up in his little cocoon. The results showed that his valves are doing well and the blood flow is good. The only concern is that his pulmonary artery is a little small. Hopefully it will grow in the coming months and won't be a problem, but the doctor said that if that's the biggest set back we have then we should take it and run as it is pretty common and fixable. That made us feel better.

They pulled out one of the 3 drains in his tummy later this morning, and they plan to take out the other IV that goes into his heart by tomorrow. Once that line comes out we can hold him again. The night nurse actually offered to let me hold him tonight, but for the welfare of sweet Jack I had to remind her about the line and that we aren't supposed to hold him yet. It nearly killed me to turn that down, but I think I can wait until tomorrow.

Jack seems to be tolerating his feeds quite well and they keep increasing them. I believe he is now up to 5 cc's per hour. They are feeding him breastmilk through an NJ tube which goes down his throat, through his stomach and directly into his gut. He has to do a swallow test to make sure he can take food through his mouth and is tentatively scheduled for that on Monday. If he passes we will probably be able to move to the recovery floor and can start trying to feed him with a bottle. Apparently they have to do a swallow test anytime they do surgery near the arch of a heart since it is very close to the nerves used for swallowing and they can often be damaged during surgery. Hopefully he will pass without any trouble so he can enjoy the feel of a nice full belly. 9 days without food is a very long time to be hungry.

Our other big excitement for the day is that we got moved to a new bed. All I heard was that they were bringing in a kid who is sceptic to the bed next to where Jack was and I was happy to moved to a nice area across the way next to another heart baby.