Thomas in his pint-sized hospital gown right before surgery.
One last Thomas snuggle before handing him to the anesthesiologist. I'd like to say that I was brave and put on a happy face, but when I passed him to the doctor he got a sweet, scared look in his eyes and I burst into tears. Then the waiting game started. Thomas' surgery took much longer than expected. Once they were in there they realized that in addition to repairing his AV canal defect, they had to close his ductus arteriosus and reconstruct an abnormal pulmonary vein. When the doctor finally came to tell us about the surgery he kept referring to Thomas as a she. I guess we'd better cut his hair when he gets home! (Jared says surgeons do that all the time because the patient is all draped off and one surgery starts to look like the next, so you start using the wrong pronoun.)
Thomas was doing well the day after surgery so they moved him to a shared room on the floor. Unfortunately he also contracted coronavirus (a cold) that made it difficult for him to breathe. He ended up going back to ICU where he was suctioned, intubated, and eventually got chest tubes for chylous pleural effusions. He also got put on viral precautions. This means no one but parents can come in his room without gloves, gowns, and a mask. It also means no visitors under age 10, so his big brother and sisters were sad to learn that they couldn't visit Thomas.
Unfortunately Thomas didn't stay on the floor long. He was getting very fussy and agitated because he was having difficulty breathing so he got sent back to the ICU and had to be intubated again.
After a few days they took the endotracheal tube out, but he still needed CPAP to breathe. Jared tried to explain what was on Thomas' face to the kids, and they all just ended up calling it Thomas' "elephant trunk." Unfortunately I had to go back to Richland since my parents had to leave and we were still unable to get into the Ronald McDonald house. We started going home during the week and coming up on weekends to see him. We had a nice student couple from the ward up here open up their small apartment to us so we didn't have to pay for an expensive hotel. We also had several ward members who came in and held Thomas for us while we were not there. There were also many hospital volunteers who came in and held Thomas for us while we were away. This was a difficult time for us but we felt that the Lord blessed us with many angels to help bear us up.
Sometimes they would give him trials on the high flow nasal cannula, but he never could handle it for very long. Finally they did an airway study on him and found out that he had laryngomalacia, so he had surgery to open his airway up. He is much better now!
ABBY, MADDY, AND NATHAN
Abby lost one of her front teeth. She was happy that the Tooth Fairy found her in Seattle.
Playing at the Ronald McDonald house.
We spent a few nights in a hotel near the American Girl store, so of course we had to make a quick trip for the girls. Maddy really liked these little cats.
