It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

And by 'neighborhood' I mean PICU.

Talk about chaos. Wonderful wonderful chaos. I miss that place. But when I first walked in I was totally intimidated. And that was on an 'empty' day in the unit. 

It's a weird sight to see your tiny baby on an adult size bed. And weirder still when that entire bed is covered in equipment just for him. As well as his body being all geared up with tubes and wires and barely an inch to spare. It's amazing what can happen to someone in 6 hours. Our sweet little Rambo had become the bionic baby. 

At this point in my head I'm pretty much just hearing static and nothing. I was finding it hard to even form a sentence that was worth anything. (I know what you're thinking about the two prior sentences, and yes, I know what I just said. And yes, I mean more than usual.) I'm used to having a 2 week old at home: watching him sleep in his bouncer, patting his back when he's crying, picking him up, feeding him etc. Not looking at the scar where they opened up his chest or listening to the ventilator that is breathing for him. Although I still think it would have been cool had they cut the incision like a lightning bolt or done something ridiculous so he could say he had a chest burster come out of there. I'm bursting the bubble here, but they even had a SECOND chance at this and still, nothing but a straight line. Where's the creativity?

So, I'm guessing (hoping at least) you figured out by the last sentence that he had to have a second open heart surgery. Rambo was not progressing at all. A heart catheter procedure was done and showed that the pressures in his heart were still all out of wack. This surgery was a little more scarey for me. He was sicker, smaller, and would be put on bypass for the second time in his short little life. He was now 4 weeks old and an old hat at this whole surgery thing. 

So the second surgery day rolled around and several hours and 110 minutes of bypass later he was done. For the last time. Of course, that's what we thought the first time so who really knows. I think it's just a crap shoot. But they say his heart is looking good so we'll see. When they went in this time they found that there were more defects than they realized but were able to repair them. Now you have to realize that what they were working on is about the size of a quarter maybe so it's not that surprising they had missed some things. I am thoroughly impressed with the work done. Thank you, Dr. Vricella. You're check is in the mail. 


This concludes our second week in the PICU. Please turn the tape over to continue listening to Rambo's Rampages.