Tuesday 9/18

Last night Judah had a play date with all the nurses in the intensive care unit. He has quickly become the favorite of everyone here, and several nurses even fought over who got to change him. When was the last time you heard of someone fighting over a dirty diaper!?

The day before surgery is a tough one, especially for mommy and daddy. Baby J doesn’t know he’s going in to surgery tomorrow, but everyone made sure to give him extra love and attention today. He’s allowed all the bottles he can drink, and everyone has been coming in to tell us that they’ll be thinking about us and that everything will go smoothly. We had visits from aunts and uncles and grandparents this morning, and even the Rabbi came by to pray with us. Mom and dad got some private time with Judah as well to say our own words to him and to hug him and kiss him and hold him as much as we could. He is strong, and we will be strong for him.

Surgery to fix Judah’s heart will begin early tomorrow morning, around 7:30am, and is expected to last around 8 hours or more. Afterwards, he will be sedated for probably at least another 24-48 hours, during which time the doctors will closely monitor him and his heart and lung functions and start taking him off life supporting machines to give his own organs a chance to begin taking over control. A few days after surgery, he should be strong enough to be able to come off the heart machines and breathing machines, and we will be able to come and visit him again. immediately after surgery we will not be able to touch or hold him, and the doctors have recommended not coming in if we don’t have to, as it can be a difficult thing to see.

We continue to be confident in our cardiology and surgical teams, and know that they will do the best they possibly can. Tomorrow will be an even more difficult day, but a day of waiting around to hear what will happen. We will be sure to keep the site updated so you can all know everything as soon as we do.

After a successful surgery, he will be in recovery back in the ICU for a few more days, and depending on how quickly he recovers, hopefully by the beginning of next week he can be moved into a regular cardiac floor room, which is a lot more private than the ICU, and we will be able to have more visitors. In the ICU we are only allowed 2 people in the room at one time, and they try to keep it to immediate family. there are no restrictions like that in the regular cardiac floor rooms, where he will probably spend another 5-7 days in recovery before he is allowed to go home. Once he is on the regular cardiac floor, we would be happy for visitors, and of course, once he is home we would love to see you all and celebrate together.

As for tonight and tomorrow, please continue to keep all three of us in your thoughts and prayers, as we appreciate and need your love and strength now more than ever. We love you all, and know that together, we will get through this. And before you know it, this will all be behind us and just a story to tell.

J-N-J