JAN 22-29 /A WEEK BEFORE MY LIFE SAVING SURGERY

Mason was doing great, he was growing and getting so close to his surgery. I thought 1800 grams would never get here, remember he was only 850 when he was born but here he was getting oh so close. I had yet to talk to the surgeon who was going to to operate on him by the 22nd. I guess since it was still early and he was only about 1500 grams They wanted to wait until he got a little closer. I was still working and doing the night visits, Mason was actually getting pretty close on his vent settings to actually get extubated. I knew that wouldnt happen until after his surgery because he would be intubated for surgery anyways. By this point Mason was getting really good at extubating himself, He hated that tube and would pull it off any chance he got. He was also doing really good with his feedings and they were going up as he tolerated them. I was getting really nervous about the surgery that I was researching the internet most of my spare time. I couldn't really find much on a 3 kilo baby getting a coarc repair. I found a lot of stuff where babies didn't survive recovery which freaked me out so much. I know he needed this surgery and it was something that had to happen but he was doing so good. I wish I could of just gone through the surgery for him but reality was his little heart needed fixing and it needed it quick. by the 26th he was on 6ML of milk every 3 hours so he was getting a total of 40 ML a day which was a little more than an ounce plus TPN and lipids. They were lowering his calories and TPN intake as he progressed on his feeds. Jenna had informed me that he would be NPO for surgery and that after surgery they would more than likely restart his feeds from the beggining again which was a little frustrating because we had made so much progress but I guess they didn't want to push him after having such an invasive surgery as open heart surgery. By the 28th he was breathing room air which meant his ventilator was at 21% the whole time. He had also gotten an eye exam to check for ROP a condition that affected many preemies eye vision. Everything looked good and he wasnt scheduled for another eye exam for another month. It also terrified me that something could be wrong with Masons eyes and that he wouldnt be able to see. But luckily everything went good and the opthomologist was happy with his results. His lab results on the 26th were a little off his CBC was a little elevated so of course our first guess was infection. At this point I started hating hospitals for there nocosomial infections.He was started on vancomycin and  tobramycin while they sent cultures to see what grew back. He was still on a very high dose of fentanyl just to keep him comfortable while he was on the vent. We were also having a little problem with his blood gases, his CO2 was a little elavated so they gave him a bolus of bicarb to help with that. He did well throughout the night. His blood gases always seemed to go bad when an infection was setting in. At this point I had made it really clear to all the nurses that they should be really cautious. not only because he had a lot of lines but also a PICC line that could easily get infected and would have to be removed. Also to be diligent about being really steril when it was time for tube change as that could easily set of an infection on such a succeptible host like Mason. They obviously knew all that but a lot of the nurses didn't use all universal precautions and didn't follow the hospitals protocol as they should and if I ever witnessed it I made sure it was addressed. After all this was my babies life on the line. When I had visitors which at this point could only be parents and grandparents I would also be really careful they of course had to scrub before going in but they would have to sanitize their hands everytime they wanted to touch Mason. I had to be really anal about all of this but infection was not our best friend and he seemed to come all to very often when it wasn't invited!! He wasn't tolerating Lasix well so they switched him over to Diuril a less potent diuretic. Other than that he was doing well enough for me to hold him. I was trying to take advantage of him being well and me being able to hold him and cherishing every second because I did not know what could happen the day of surgery. I knew the risks we were taking and I wanted to make sure my baby knew he was very much loved. This was week 22-29 a week before surgery, I didn't know it at the time but at 1715 grams we were very close to the 1800 goal so I knew it would come soon, My baby boy was growing<3

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