Here is Bridger in some of his big boy clothes

HOME AGAIN!

We're home again! We were discharged from the hospital on Wednesday afternoon with high-flow oxygen and IV milrinone (the med that is helping his heart and lung function). So far Bridger is doing well. This morning he was vomiting before his blood draw, so the also tested his level of heart failure which was increased from Wednesday, but still it has been worse. So he sees his cardiologist on Monday where they will check his blood again. So we are hoping to have a nice quiet weekend. I'll keep you posted and try to post some new pictures this weekend.

Bridger's Heart Heroes Wristbands

"Bridger's Heart Heroes"

Bridger wristbands are now available! You can buy one (or more) of these bright red wristbands for $5 each and become one of "Bridger's Heart Heroes". If interested in a great cause, please contact Maura Smith at 801-633-8817 or by email at jomakamcki@digis.net to purchase. Cash or check will be accepted (make checks payable to Danny or Staci Smith). Let's all show our support for Bridger's recovery and for CHD awareness. Thank you to everyone for your continued thoughts and prayers for Danny, Staci and Bridger.

A quiet weekend

Nothing much happened this weekend, the doctors just made some adjustments to Bridger's medications and oxygen. Otherwise we just kind of hung out. Yesterday, Bridger was a little unhappy due to the two upper teeth and two lower teeth that are trying to break through, but today he seems to feel a little better. He still has a couple more days of his IV antibiotics and they are working on getting his blood thinner at just the right level. He is still wearing his big boy clothes and looking so cute!

Big boy clothes

Today I dressed Bridger in clothes (usually he is just in a diaper because of all the lines coming off of him) I am starting to work on his temperature regulation again. Since he is always naked in the hospital, his body regulates its temp without clothes. So when I do get him dressed, he overheats easily. So he is getting dressed now, I turn the thermostat down and slowly turn it back up as his body adjusts. He looked so cute, he had shorts and a t-shirt and cute flip-flops. I'll post the pictures when I get them downloaded. Otherwise a pretty quiet day, they adjusted Bridger's oxygen a bit, changed one of his medications from IV to go in his g-tube, and we got to take a nap together on a playmat on the floor. Not too bad. So just taking things slow- which is fine by us!

A new central line

We made it to surgery today. Bridger was supposed to go in at 10:30am, but in true fashion they didn't take him until almost 2:00pm. It didn't take too long, he didn't bleed alot, and they were able to take the breathing tube out in the OR so all in all it went well. Now because of his pulmonary hypertension these smaller procedures are not as cut and dry as before, there is more risk in putting him on a breathing tube and under general anesthesia, so I am glad there were no surprises today. Bridger now had a central line in his right thigh, hopefully we can hang on to this one for a bit. I posted on the other blog that we have 400 cranes up here at the hospital, I think we may have surpassed the 1000, so maybe that means I will be able to make the same wish twice (wouldn't that increase our odds?). Thank you all sooo much for helping us with this. So for the rest of the day the plan is just to get Bridger back to where he was before surgery.

Fun!!!!!!!!

Yesterday Bridger was taken off of CPAP and put on high flow oxygen. He was feeling pretty good after a week of feeling terrible so he was in quite a playful mood. So we got out our playmat and Bridger, Danny and I played on the floor together. While we were down there one of our favorite nurses, Susan came by and said that she had to get some pictures of us. So thanks to her we have our first family pictures since mid-November. As for today, we were supposed to go to surgery today to have a central line placed, but due to his blood thinner we have to wait. So we are hoping to go on Wednesday. So I guess we will just have to play for a couple of days, darn!