When we got to Jackson, we were ushered right into the NICU. It was so overwhelming. We went from a small NICU with 3 babies to one with 90!! It was so noisy and people were everywhere. We were taken to Aaron's warmer where a cardiologist was performing another echo. There was also an attending, resident, nurse and another doctor that I do not remember what her official title was. After the echo was complete, he told us that Aaron has a coarctation of his aorta that would need to be repaired with surgery. He said that the surgical team would meet in the morning and decide when that surgery would take place. We were not sure if that meant the next day or the next week or what. They then pulled up a laptop with images of a coarctation and a video that explained the whole defect. It was so helpful! Guess thats one of the advantages of being in a teaching hospital. After they answered all of our questions, we went out to the waiting room where our moms, Leigh, Morgan and the Clenndenings were waiting for us. We told them the news and pulled up the video again. Stephen did a great job explaining everything that we had learned. The nurse in me was no help. The mommy in me was shutting down. I could only sit there. We were told that Aaron was stable and well watched and that we needed to go get some sleep. We all headed out to the Remmington and crawled into bed sometime well after midnight. We were awakened to a call from a nurse saying the surgeon wanted to meet with us in the next hour. We jumped up and threw on some clothes and ran to the hospital. When were were almost there my dad text me to say that anesthesiology in to prep Aaron for surgery. Okay, so we were going to have surgery today. We called the rest of the group that was back at the Remmington and told them to head to the hospital soon. We went into the NICU and sat with Aaron. This was when I started crying. I just sat looking at him, not wanting for him to have to go through a major surgery but understanding I would never take home a healthy baby if he didn't. The cardiologist and surgeon came and spoke with us and our family and thoroughly explained the procedure. They said that Aaron would be taken back as soon as they finished with the case that was currently in the operating room. I have no idea what the timeline was of this day. It was a complete blur from the moment we woke up. Sometime around lunch the finished prepping Aaron. They let us walk with him to the pre-op area. But first that stopped and let our family see him. For most of them, it was the first time they had seen him not through the nursery window.
The surgery took a couple hours. They called us with an update once saying Aaron was asleep and the surgery was started. We were waiting for the next update call when I started pacing the hall. While I was pacing, the surgeon walked up. At first I panicked. "Wait, aren't you supposed to be in surgery with my CHILD?" Then I said, "Wait, you are smiling! That's good right!?" He said, "Yes, very good." We walked into the waiting room and he told us that the surgery was over and he was very pleased with how it had gone. Aaron was in recovery and would be transported to PICU soon.
The moment we knew it was all okay:
Relief!
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