tbt ~ 4.14.12 'back to chop'

Yesterday evening after getting Jackson to bed and Hayden asleep, I planned to update the blog and discuss his continued issues with feedings but that overall I was starting to feel better about being home and starting to adjust to my new normal. Unfortunately, I never got a chance to write that blog because last night after getting Jackson to bed, we immediately rushed Hayden to the Hackensack ER. He was showing labored breathing and extremely fussy. He also had a fever so with everything combined, we made our way there as quickly as we could. Riding in the back seat with a one-month old grunting with every breath he took was heart breaking...and I found myself holding my breath too. 

It's incredibly different walking into an ER with a toddler that has a bloody mouth or a high fever than with an infant with heart problems. And I guess as it should be. We were taken right away and his care began immediately. Within about an hour we were warned we would be transported either to his cardiologist in St Peters or back to CHOP. They didn't tell us much. It seemed Hayden's condition was pretty foreign to them and they didn't want to give false information. They basically prepared us for our transfer, which was ultimately back to CHOP at 3am. We arrived here by ambulance at 5:30 and were welcomed back by many familiar faces in the CICU. 

Within about an hour, Hayden had been assessed by the attendee, fellow and cardiac surgeon on-call. Luckily it was decided that although Hayden's incision seemed to be infected, it was not infected enough to warrant re-opening the incision to clean it out. Hayden had many tests run on him, blood work, cultures, etc. Some take 48 hours to get back and we are still waiting on those results. But for now he is being treated for an infection and receiving antibiotics. Once Hayden's tests come back, they may know more of where the source of the infection began. Either way, it sounds like this should be cured by antibiotics and keeping a close eye on his incision, breathing and overall behavior. Hayden's oxygen levels have also been dipping so he is currently on a nasal cannula but hopefully this is just a minor setback for today and he will be back to full room air by tomorrow. He also started getting his feeds again this afternoon and did start off by taking some by mouth but he is truly exhausted so we are giving him a little break with that. My hope is that while we are here his infection will be cleared and hopefully we can also get to the bottom of all his feeding issues. 

Thank you as always for your love and support. Hopefully this will be a short-term stay and Hayden and I can return back home to be a family together once again.