When Tyler was 8 days old, he underwent his first open heart surgery, the Norwood. There are no words to describe the heartache of sending our newborn son to the operating room, not knowing if we'd ever hold him again. We paced the waiting room for 6 long hours waiting to hear that he was okay.
The surgery was successful but it seem to take him a little longer to recover and heal than the doctors estimated. He also developed very severe reflex and ended up going back to the OR for another surgery called a Fundoplication and g-tube placement to help. Finally on June 23rd, 2 1/2 months after birth, Tyler was able to come home.
We were so happy to finally be home but it was also scary to be bringing home this fragile little baby. Tyler was having a hard time adjusting to home instead of a hospital atmosphere. He was very sensitive to his new surroundings and would get upset very easily. His oxygen saturation was staying around the low 70's(oxygen saturation for a baby with a healthy heart are 100). We were told by his doctors that they did not want his sats to be lower than 70 and could not let him cry for long periods of time. It was a stressful first few weeks at home trying to keep him calm, comfortable and continually checking his oxygen levels. Five months later he was back in the hospital for the Glenn procedure.
Tyler recovered very quickly from this surgery and was released from the hospital two weeks later. His oxygen saturations are now in the low to mid 80's. He has physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech and feeding therapy once a week and we visit with our local cardiologist every four months. Even after everything that he has been through so far, he is a happy little guy. We thank God daily for allowing this special little boy to be apart of our family.
