More Prayers are Needed.....

Yesterday we received some bad news from the doctors. Yesterday morning , Colin began to throw up bile again just like he did before surgery. His oxygen levels also decreased. He threw up several more times that morning and they decided to do an echo to see if pressure had changed within the heart. Well, they don't believe the pressure changed much, however, they noticed that the right ventricle is still failing. They brought Colin back into the ICU so they could put him back on Milrinone and Dopamine, which helps his heart contract better. We were told that it could take a long time for the right ventricle to recover. We were also told that it might never recover.

They are now going back to the drawing board to find out what, if any, could be done...... They did say that his heart just may need more time on the drugs to overcome the past damage. We are not sure what surgically they may need to do, if any....... Colin is a fighter, and we just hope that he still has fight left in him to overcome this next obstacle. Please fire back up the prayers, because God has to listen sometime right?

A Smile Appears.......

Well today we continued to get better news. Although he still has a fever which comes and goes, he also has been drinking by mouth, his stomach has softened as he has been pooping and getting all the air out of it, and HE SMILED......Melanie was giving him his breathing treatment and he broke out in smiles.

The Scar Appears.....

Sorry for the lack of updates...I hit a rut of not updating the blog and I apologize. Since I am back in Syracuse, I received pictures today via cellphone and uploaded them to the site. Colin is doing better and is healing, however he has still had a fever that comes a goes. It is really frustrating us because if he didn't have a fever, we could be out of the ICU and home sooner. They conducted an Cat Scan yesterday to see if he had any signs of infection within his body. The Cat Scan did not show anything major so they have him on antibiotics to try and fight it off. Overall, he continues to look good and they weighed him today and surprisingly he did not lose any weight......

Day one of recovery.......

Well today they extubated Colin and he was doing well. They also pulled his left chest tube out. He was doing well, until they noticed that his left lung looked cloudy and they were affraid that it would collapse, so they put him back on a CPAP machine. He is doing really well however and looks great. Dr. Bacha and Dr. Freed both were very happy with his progress. Lets just hope he doesn't get a flat in the left lung. Of course, since Colin was doing so well, Nanna stayed with him so Melanie and I could go take a tour of Fenway Park, however we got the news that the left lung looked cloudy 5 minutes before the tour started, so we got in a cab and went back. Maybe tomorrow......

Moving On......

Well, this evening we all decided (doctors & us) to skip the 3rd surgery because they didn't feel that the odds were very good, and even so if it did work, would it make a difference. After seeing Colin's legs last night after the Cath they just weren't sure how much more he could go through. This wasn't an easy decision, but neither would have been sending him back in. We are now leaving it up to God to keep the pressure down in his right side. Currently it looks good, but hopefully it doesn't start to rise again. Tomorrow morning they will take the breathing tube out, and start to pull some of the tubes and lines still in him. All the hardcore drugs are stopped and now they will just give him the methadone, because there is no doubt he is addicted. I will post new photo's tomorrow with the tube out. In the meantime check out the photo I took today. Doesn't it look like he needs to have a girl by his side?

Decisions...Decisions..........

Well today Colin had another 5 hour Cath procedure in which they took pressure measurements and did complete a few stents to the upper left lung. The good news is the pressure has dropped in half since before the first surgery in the Right Ventricle. The bad news is the blood clot returned to the shunt that was put into the lower left lung. This is fairly rare when shunts are involved because they supply the blood to the region at a higher pressure. Well Colin continues to be a one man band and he clotted. Again this is due to the extremely small vessels that had minimal blood flow for the past year. We now have a decision to make on whether to put him back into surgery on Thursday. Dr. Bacha said he thought we should for one final last ditch effort, in which he would completely "rebuild" the shunt and homograph. If it clots again than we lost the lower left lung forever. However, the chance of it working is anywhere from 10-20%. They would cath during and a day after to try and prevent it from clotting yet again. The surgery would only involve going in the back incision and considering he still has his Left Chest Tube in, Breathing Tube, IV's, Central Line and Arterial Lines in, it would be minimal to Colin but set his recovery back a few days. Colin would not need to be put back on bypass either during the surgery. This is a decision that Melanie and I have to ultimately make and we are split on the decision.

Saturday Update......

Colin continues to recover from the second surgery. He is still currently sedated and paralyzed, however they are going to lift the paralyzing drug today. The plan on leaving the tube in for at least another day or so, because they really want to support the left lung. Dr's are pleased with his recovery once again. They will be pulling 1 of the 3 chest tubes out today. Colin's color is coming back and the red dot on his head is slowly starting to fade.