This is the final look of the scar when we left. We were there for 7 nights, 8 days. We had so many great nurses there, Kyles favorite and longest to take care of him was Eric. Eric was a great guy, fun to talk to and nice for kyle to have a big guy to look after him. Eric made sure that all of our needs were met at all times. He lived in santa cruz with his wife and commuted every day four days on, 3 days off. What a great profession. I have a great respect for all of those medical personnel that helped with kyle. They were so attentive and always kept us completely informed on what was going on, when doctors would be by and such. Dr Azaki came by nearly every day to see kyle and check on his progress. They were concerned at one time that his heart rate was too low. They came to the conclusion after they changed the setting that kyle just runs a low heart rate. We only had one crazy night of not knowing what the monitors were really telling us. Eric fixed that and we were all good after that!
There were so many babies there, some born with defects and had been there since they were born, months ago. There were a few big kids like kyle with basically the same thing as kyle. It was a great experience if you have to go through it! We were so glad to go home, Terry and I took turns staying with kyle in the room over night and staying at the hotel in downtown. I grew to appreciate san francisco a lot more. not just a crazy city, really it showed us its charm .
Megan and Abby came to see Kyle. He also had uncle scott, Melissa and Jack, Cindrina and Sydney, Aunt sharon, uncle joe grandma diane and Grandma joan, she came everyday for the first three days. Kyles friends came to see him too, Jaden, jacob, monica, don and cira came as well as guy,sherri, ian and trent. What nice family and friends to support kyle. He was really glad to have the company. It gets pretty boring sitting in bed all day watching tv.
Chest tubes came out, wow did that feel weird, and painfull. NP Laura came in and juiced him up with morphine, gave him a breathe in and out 123, yank! The chest tubes were out! Yeah, not kyle could really start to feel better.
This is day 3 snoopy came for a visit to bring around snoopy socks! Kyle will take 3 pairs! he has all kinds of wires comming out of his chest, arms 7 for the final count. The pace make wires, the drains, the 2 iv's and 1 artiery line, also the catheter, but lucky for him that came out pretty soon after surgery.
Day two and he is looking a bit better, still in pain but his spirits are starting to come back
He doesn't look like he is having much fun here. He is really drugged up, this is his first sit up the next morning. When he was coherent enough to talk to us he wanted to tell us what it was like to go into the surgery. He told us it was really weird. They took him in and gave him some gas to make him get really groggy. Then he heard the nurse tell him that they were gonna put on a tunecut to start the iv. He said then every went dark and there were these flashes of light, and he was out. When he wsa back out of surgery he was coherent but not really with it. He cold hear everything that we were saying to him but couldn't really open his eyes yet. It took quite some time for him to come off of all those drugs.
This is kyle staight out of surgery and back in the ICU. the first thing he did was try and tell us to get that breathing tube out of his mouth. Then when they finally took it out a couple hours later, he said he wanted to go home. Oh well, that's not gonna happen for another week.
This is us, the surgery waiting crew. We were so anxious that we had to play an intense game of monopoly. The surgery took about 5 1/2 hours in and out. We were hoping for about 3.
This is an appropriate balloon for Kyle. SUPERMAN!
Aunt Sharon and Uncle Joe sent Kyle 2 huge Balloon boquets. there were so many we couldn't even fit them in the icu room so we gave one of the boquets away to the the other kids in the icu. The nurses really appreciated it!
This is kyle the day after surgery. He is up and out of bed, he looks great.
This was the morning of surgery, getting prepared to go in. Our last hugs and kisses. He doesn't even look nervous. Kyle was such a trooper. They woke him up 10 minutes before they came and picked him up on the gurney. so he didn't have much time to be worried.
