Peter - Carepages - July 2nd, 2007

Green represents life - grass, plants, trees. Peter went into surgery at 8:30am with a green mohawk. Around 3pm John and I were taken back to the CICU (cardiac intensive care unit) to see our little man starting a whole new phase of his long life!! Peter did great! He is resting right now, and no doubt dreaming of going home soon - yeah! John and I got to Denver around 7am. We were greeted by Peter's primary nurse in the ICC - Kodi. She gave us support and Peter a big kiss for a successful day. After checking in we moved to pre-op. We gave Peter his green mohawk while the nurses got him all ready for surgery. I was staying strong and doing great until they told me it was time to hand him over and watch them walk away with him. Peter was awake at the time and no doubt thinking "when will you quit kissing me mom?". We spent the next endless hours in the waiting room where we received regular updates through out the surgery. We were very blessed to have our friends Chris, April, Tita and Ben come to give us moral support. The time was filled with lots of laughter and I'm sure that energy reached Peter in the O.R. Around 3pm we were taken back to see Peter. Despite all the tubes and wires, Peter looked well to both John and I....his hair do intact! Peter is on a ventilator which is inserted through his nose. By early evening he was breathing on his own, so they are weaning him off the ventilator. We hope to have it removed within the next day or so. He has two tubes draining blood coming out of his abdomen - one drains blood from the cavity around the lungs, and the other the cavity around the heart. Both are draining little fluid which is great. He also has two sets of wires coming out in the same area - they are inserted to his heart and can be rapidly attached to a pace maker if necessary. He has an IV in his foot, a catheter, a line into his arm for easy withdrawl of blood dispensing of pain medication. He also has a line going in around his groin area where they get blood pressure readings from. Peter has some minor swelling, but is healthy and pink looking. It is still too early to tell the effect on the pulmonary hypertension, but the signs are positive. He did have a small portion of his right lung "collapse" but the doctors are positive he will recover from that. He has shown some signs of discomfort, so they are closely monitoring him and adjusting his pain medication. While I know there is still a recovery period to work through, as a mom I have this gut sense that he is doing great. When I sit next to him I feel the miracle of healing going on inside his little body - and I am in awe! The energy he radiates is so full of life!! We are sooooo thankful for this miracle, for the prayers that brought it on and can't wait till Peter can be in our arms again. Sorry this is short, my attention span is short due to NO sleep. John and I are going to spend some more time with Peter, and will be sleeping at the hospital tonight. Love to all! catherine