Still home!

Bridger had an appointment with his cardiologist yesterday, and so far everything looks good. They did not do an echo yet, but we go back in two weeks and they will decide then when the next echo will be. Since we have been home Bridger seems to be doing his best to catch up on all of the sleep he lost while at the hospital, he takes good long naps during the day. He has decided that he hates the taste of his formula, so I guess we will just work on his strength and move on to baby food. Bridger and the boys are getting along great, he likes to play with Brasko's tail & loves to watch Loki run around. For now we have no big plans, just to enjoy being home.

WE ARE HOME AGAIN! HOPEFULLY FOR LONGER THIS TIME.

Bridger was discharged from the hospital yesterday afternoon. We got home just before 4pm and started to settle in. We are all hoping that he doesn't have to go back to Primary's for more than his checkups and blood draws for quite some time. He still can't be around crowds or children for quite a while due to the risk of him catching something, so again we will be laying low for a while. I will keep posting on Bridger's progress while we are home. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers. We love you!

a couple days ago

The Echo

The Echo that Bridger had yesterday had better results than last week. Our cardiologist reviewed all of Bridger's echos & didn't think that last weeks was that different, it just happened to be the timing of his heart contractions that made the heart function look worse than it is. That's good to hear. On the right side of his heart there are increased pressures, whether this is from all of the work it had been doing or the fact that the other issues are settling & this one is more noticeable now we don't know, but our doctor will keep an eye on it for now.

My SWEET boy!

Bridger has decided that he likes this whole eating thing. It is strange having to adjust to a hungry cry again, I never really thought that he would ever take a bottle again. But now he loves it, he just doesn't always have the strength for it after months of not eating, though he sure is building it up. No changes really today, we are just hanging out waiting to see if this new medicine can help his heart and he will have another echo on Monday, so I will let you know.

The Echo

Bridger had his echo done yesterday, which said that his heart function went from 59% down to 17%- we were not happy about this. However, in speaking with the cardiologist and the intesivest, they agree that yes his heart function is decreased, but maybe not as much as the numbers are saying. So they increased one of Bridger's heart medications and started another heart med and we will give it a few days and then maybe re-echo at the begining of next week. So not exactly what we want to hear, but hopefully a little better than the numbers show.

No news is good news

Not a whole lot of changes right now. The medical team is just trying to fine tune all of Bridger's medications. Sometime today he will have another echo to see the function of his heart with the new valve & his pacemaker. He has started to drink from a bottle again! It has been nearly four months since he has taken anything by mouth, so this is pretty exciting for us. Today he even got to try a little formula (1/4 formula & 3/4 pedialyte- so that he isn't shcked by the flavor) and he drank an entire ounce ( that is alot after months of eating nothing). So we have some things to continue working on. His rehab therapies started yesterday as well, which has been keeping us busy. Hopefully we are working our way out of here.

OOOPs!

Sorry I forgot to say that Bridger was extubated on Thursday, and they even let him pull out his own breathing tube! He is much calmer without it, but again this morning he was still working on a fever. A couple of changes were made to his IV medications so we will see if that helps him tonight. This morning he and I got to take a nap on a mat on the floor together. It was great! Just lying there and holding hands. He is soooo sweet. And this afternoon while Danny was here, Bridger finally started smiling again and even laughing at me. Otherwise no other changes for now.

Another fever

Bridger spiked a fever again this morning. So far his cultures from the fever a few days ago have shown nothing, so they are repeating all of the same cultures again today. For today there is not much on the board for today, we will just try to keep him cool and find the cause for the fever

Never a dull moment

Bridger had a rough day yesterday, he was very restless and uncomfortable. I thought that maybe he was just ready to have his breathing tube out and that was what had been making him mad. So his sedation was increased and he settled down until about 5:00 this morning. He became furious, his heart rate shot up to 200 from 120 earlier, and his breathing became very distressed. They checked his tempurature and it was 39.5 (103). So he had blood and urine cultures drawn, and well as a viral respiratory panel. For right now we have been put on isolation in case of a virus. Because all of this causes him respiratory distress, the doctors will not look to wean the ventilator any more today. Hopefully we can get Bridger more comfortable and have a quiet day.

Timing is everything

Today is a big day for Bridger. He needs to have the central line in his neck removed, the arterial line in his right wrist removed, a drain is his abdomen removed and have his g-tube changed out. However, the trick to all of this is that it must be done while his blood thinner is off and it can't be left off for to long. So the doctors are are trying to coordinating all of the specialists to be at the bedside at the same time, and the nurse will have to reroute all of his IV medications from his central line to the PICC line that was placed yesterday. So there will be alot going on today for Bridger and hopefully it won't stress him out too much.

-----Staci

The pacemaker

On Friday, Bridger's heart was having trouble sensing the external pacemaker which caused his heart rate and blood pressure to drop dangerously low. So yesterday morning his doctors decided that he needed a permanent pacemaker placed and that it needed to be soon in order to avoid further complications. At 8:45 this morning they took our little man back to surgery for what will hopefully be the last time for quite a while.

-----Staci

One week

Bridger had his mitral valve replaced one week ago today! Yesterday they removed the central line in his neck as well as his breathing tube. He is on high flow oxygen now and so far he is maintaining. The atrium and ventricle in his heart are still not communicating, so right now he is still on the external pacemaker. After all of this my beautiful boy still gives me sweet smiles and even giggles, he is a such a good sport. They will give his heart another week to see if it will start communicating before they look to further intervention, so we will see.

-------Staci

Recovery

Bridger had an echo on his heart yesterday that showed decreased function. The different parts of his heart are still not communicating well with each other, so he is still on the pacemaker. The doctors are hoping that this is just part of the recovery phase for him, saying that most people would still be recovering from one heart surgery after 6 months and he has had three heart surgeries in that time. So we are just going to take it slow and hopefully with time things will improve.

-------Staci