This summer has been a true world wind of everything.
It started with Mother’s Day and mom’s birthday, at the beginning of the year I said she wanted to celebrate my birthday big. I only turn 35 once right. Well those plans got completely changed and I decided to just do a small dinner and dad plan a mom-cation my birthday weekend. It was even more special than I could have imagined, the love I received was amazing and it was all perfect.
Then craziness, so if anyone has ever had to deal with insurance and medical claims you know it’s a full time job. So not even a week away from Frank’s scheduled MRI & Cath we were advise that dads insurance would not cover their portion, he is dual covered at the time and moms insurance picks up the remainder, but in this case the hospital required the primary to approval the procedure prior. So they of course did not approve and we had to get everything pushed back. We decided to drop dads insurance and only have my insurance cover everything and they approved it. We ended up having to pay his out of pocket max just for the cath & mri in July. With it all being pushed back we had surgery in August, one week before his 3rd birthday.
Now let’s get to the real real. So August 12 Frank went in for the 2nd/final stage of the bi ventricle repair (first was last October). This was the longest and most intensive surgery he has undergone. The first week of surgery was one of the hardest. That weekend post op we were so scared and nervous Frank was not coming out of the sedation. We were very concerned and the doctors decided to start Neuro tests to cross those off the list; CT scan and EEG they were all cleared other than discovering some major development. So at some point in Frank’s life he has suffered a stroke, yes what a shock indeed. My mind went to all the things, how did we miss this, when, at what point, when, how. All the things crossed my mind. We were assured that the previous stroke is not effecting his current status.
With all the test coming back fine we then went to not so medical with delirium. He was delirious indeed. So we had to work on getting him up and moving, outside some, awake more.
So the whole update consist of . . .
8/12: CARDIAC BAFFLE REVISION & CARDIAC RIGHT VENTRICLE-PULMONARY ARTERY CONDUIT
8/13: CARDIAC STERNAL EXPLORATION & CLOSURE
8/22: CARDIAC PACEMAKER PLACEMENT
8/29: DISCHARGED
Currently he takes about 7 meds in the morning and 9 meds at night (which we just got off of 2 meds), hopefully this continues to decrease as we go to appointments. Since we’ve been discharged we have had to go back twice a week for appointments and/or scans/bloodwork. With all the meds they are watching him extremely close to see how he’s adjusting.
My emotions were everywhere, here is a video of his time. Please note this video shows his recovery which includes some of him right after surgery where his chest was open.
We have the most amazing support system from bringing us food, staying, visiting, calling us in the hospital. We celebrated his 3rd birthday in the hospital and he received all the love even tho he wasn’t in the best of spirits it was amazing.
Check out his Amazon wishlist if interested in surprising our little guy.
To my mom, I cannot say thank you enough. The second week Franklin and I had to return to work and she’s was there 100% of the time on total night duty at bedside with Frank. And Franklin drove from Dallas to Sherman everyday for work and back.
To our family and friends, this has been such an adjustment for everyone we haven’t been as present with those relationships but you all have been there every second and we thank you.
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