Our stay at Vandy!!

I apologize for how long it's taken me to finish writing Judson's story of surgery! And I know it's over and done now, but I still want to write it out, for ME to remember, for me to read to him one day, and once again my main goal through it all, is to see someone come to know the Lord through Judson's journey! If i can point ONE person to the Lord....it would be worth the whole journey,  all the pain,  all the uncertainty!

This post is going to have lots of pictures! I have put a lot of my pictures into collages, because I have so many,  and want to show as many as possible...... because I know moms that are preparing to go through this surgery want to be prepared, and see images of what to expect after surgery! I looked at a lot of pictures of other kids,  before Judson's surgery,  and it truly helped me during those tough post op days!!

                      BEFORE SURGERY!!

RECOVERY AND PICU DAY 1!

1 blood transfusion in recovery, moved to PICU the afternoon after surgery.

His eyes began to swell before bedtime that night, and by morning they were swollen shut! See my blog post "NEW MERCY" for details on our first night!

PICU DAY 2....this was the hardest day for our little man...and for us. The big reveal of his head was this morning.  Unfortunately,  in the time it took me to walk down the hall to our sleep room (to get Juddys twin brother), and the time it took my husband to walk back to the PICU room (had to be 15 mins tops), the plastics resident came around and unwrapped his head while noone was in there!!! I pretty much flipped out at the time......why would they do that without us there....i wanted a picture of the reveal...i didnt even get to see his head first....i was emotional and almost cried. BUT....i got over it! Lets just say, we never left Judsons side again!! Thankfully he slept most of this day, but it was very hard to get him in a comfortable position without him slumping over. It was also so hard to know I couldn't hold him! It broke my heart! During this day Judson also had to have his 2nd blood transfusion, and a plasma transfusion on this day . He had quite a bit of difficulty getting his blood levels back where they needed to be. 

 This is Jackson, taking a nap in the room, after a ride in the wagon with Nana!!

PICU

Day 3: Still another hard day. Juddy still had his eyes swollen shut on this day,  which just made him frustrated. They kept his pain under control with oxycodone and Tylenol. On this day, he was able to have the arterial line taken out, as well as the drain tube in his head removed! These were the two things we had anxiously been waiting for!! These things meant WE COULD HOLD HIM!!!!! We were so excited and so nervous about holding him for the first time! Our nurse was wonderful and walked us through it! I just knew as soon as he got into my arms, he would be relaxed, no pain, and mommy's touch would fix everything!! It didn't really work like that! He became overstimulated with us holding him, and cried most of the time. :( at first it broke our heart, but we realized that this was all new to him , and he was still in a lot of pain.  Dr. Kelly (the craniofacial surgeon), came in this day and gave Judson a steroid to begin softening his edema.  It was amazing! By that evening we started to see an eye peaking thru !!!

Discharge from PICU and moved to a regular room: Day 4

On the morning of Day 4, Judsons eyes were both shining bright again and we were so incredibly thankful!!! As the physicians made rounds this morning they were very encouraged by how Judson was progressing! We would be moving to the floor!! When we finally got moved over to our regular room, we met our new nurse, got our things settled in, and the nurse took all Juddys chest leads off, O2 monitor off, and one of his IVs out. Now our baby boy was only restricted with 1 IV port and his lovely steri strips on his incision! We were able to put little jammies back on him and things began to feel normal again! It was at this point that the fatigue and exhaustion started to kick in for this mama!! Josh was able to get a cot brought into our room, and with the help from Josh and our moms, I was able to take a nice nap!! It was much needed! We had a nice big room, so we were able to have a few family members come to visit, as well as our two little girls! Our daughters stayed with their Grammy and Great Grammy during this whole process, in a hotel close by! We were thankful to see them everyday! As we winded down on Day 4, this was a very different time than the past 3 days! We did not have constant monitoring or nurses in our room. It was nerve wracking, but helped us transition into feeling comfortable with caring for Judson! **Side note for Cranio mom's....during this time Juddy started experiencing a lot of constipation from all the pain medication, which created even more pain for him. We ended up staying one more day due to this added pain and discomfort. **

Day 5: Our last full day and night at the hospital! We spent this day taking some strolls around the hospital, taking Judson outside, and continuing to watch his swelling go down! Unfortunately on our last night at the hospital, we had a BIG scare! I had dosed off to sleep, when I was awakened to the sound of Judson crying a little. I looked over to his crib where I saw his feet up in the air. Since he was less medicated and more active, he had wiggled out of the "carseat" type chair that he was positioned in, and fell head first into the crib! I thank the LORD that he fell to the left side of the crib. You see, the left railing of the crib was raised up all the way, but the right was halfway down.  A fall to the right side might have ended much worse. After being checked out by the nurse, and I was assured he was fine, I ended up spending the rest of the night with him on my chest!! Shewwww....after that was over, I was very ready to get home! 

SUNDAY JUNE 25TH.....We headed home!! 

Praise the Lord!!

Just look at the precious smile on that baby's face!! 

"This is the LORDS doing; it is marvelous in our eyes..." Psalm 118:23