Turn around the corner

It has been 50 hours since Ethan came out of surgery.  When the doctor's say the next 48 hours are going to be the hardest and most crucial they aren't kidding around.

After surgery Ethan began to have a fever and arrhythmia.  His heart function was not where it needed to be, the nurses were barely getting a pulse in his lower extremities, and his fever was between 102.1-103.3.  The pacemaker that was placed was constantly kicking in and I think I was a nervous wreck.  We've had so many people praying for us and I truly believe that has made such a difference.  I had posted a prayer request on facebook and a few hours later his fever broke and was completely normal.  It has been at 98.6 since 12:00 am this morning!

Last night the doctor's had to turn the pacemaker on to pace Ethan's heart.  His heart rate had drastically increased to 180-230 beats per minute!  This really freaked me out especially when I googled tachycardia on the Internet.  Fortunately, I have friends that are heart moms as well (connected through Sisters by Heart) and they calmed me and told me that this was normal post op. They gave him some medicine to also help with this and they are still pacing his  with the pace maker heart now.

More good news is that I just met with the cardiologist here and he had ordered an echo cardiogram and told me that the function of Ethan's heart looked perfect on the echo!  He said that Ethan is stable now and he feels that he has finally starting to "turn around the corner".  They are now giving him lipids and nutrients through the IV and starting to slowly turn down some of his medicines.  I am hopeful that within the next few days they will be able to extubate him and I'll be able to hold my little love again.  For now I just talk to him and watch him sleep.

On the funnier side, yesterday a nurse commented on how smart Ethan was.  I said, "Really?  What did he do?" She said that he had been stirring in his sleep and went straight for his breathing tube and tried to pull it out.  Needless to say they have his arms tied down now.  I told her that I don't blame him for trying to pull it out- he has a few things on his mind he'd like to tell us!

Well, good bye for now.  I will keep everyone updated as we learn more!