First Bike Ride

Tonight Brodie rode on his first bike, and Joe got to use his Father's Day present. We weren't sure how he would like it, but he loved it. This kid is fearless!

Put me in the ZOO

Yesterday, Brodie had his first follow up appointment since surgery. They removed all the stitches, and he had an EKG, ECHO, and X-Rays done. Everything looks great, also Brodie has gained 14oz. since surgery. That is the most weight gain he has ever had. He now weighs 13lbs 14oz. I think he is about to go through a big growth spurt now that his heart isn't working as hard. After his appointment we took him to the Philadelphia zoo.

Brodie's favorite nurse, Miss Pam

At the zoo

First time eating mint chip, Yummy!

I love Cake

Today was my birthday, and my two wonderful guys spoiled me all day. This morning I got to open my presents. I got a gift certificate for a massage from Brodie and a bike and some really cute shirts from Joe. I don't think he knows about my history of bicycles, or he would have included a helmet, knee pads, elbow pads, shoulder pads, you get the point. Joe Also made me a birthday cake, and Brodie and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you honey for my wonderful birthday, I love you.

Look out Duff, Joe's going into the cake business

OH my that's a lot of candles

First bite of cake

Who knew those eyes could get any bigger

A few bites later

I LOVE CAKE!!!!!!!

AAHHHH...Pure chocolate bliss

The Recovery

Brodie has been recovering so fast, it's amazing. We got released from the hospital on Tuesday and are just laying low at home. He is pretty much back to normal, and really doesn't seem to be in any kind of pain. My mom flew in on Saturday to spend a day with us before she had to go back to Florida, thanks mom. We miss you already.

Two days after surgery, he was pretty swollen

We had to make him sleep sitting up to help drain the fluid from his face
At home relaxing

With gamma

Playing his extreme version of peek-a-boo. You might want to pause the music at the end of the blog to hear this video

I want my mama!!!

Brodie has screamed his way out of ICU and into mommys arms. All night last night and all morning he screamed out "mama, mmyy mmmaaammmaa" It was heart breaking. Due to all of the excitment, i was not allowed to touch him or even be in his line of sight. Luckily for us, Brodie has been sailing through his recovery so far, so they decided to release him back into our room. Once all of the Arterial lines and drainage tube were removed they let me hold him. Immediatly he drank 5.5oz and passed out for a few hours. I guess mama is the best medicine after all. Since being released at 2:30 Brodie has done great, he has slept about 90% of the time and Joe and I just keep taking turns rocking him. He is in alot of pain, but is tolorating it as much as he can.

in our room on 2B

The Tin Man

Little Brodie is out of surgery and recovering in CICU. Surgery went well, they sucessfully connected the blue blood veins to the lungs, they also closed off a vaulve that was leaking. Right now he is still heavily medicated for pain, but not for sedation. He still is on the ventilator, but that might come out tonight. He also has a pace maker connected right now because his heart is not beating fast enough on it's own. However they don't expect him to stay on the pace maker. All and all the doctors are pleased and his color looks really good.

All of the medication that they have him on

One Down

This morning we arrived at A.I. at 8:00am, unfortunitly when we got here we found out that Brodie's first surgery had been pushed back a few hours. So Joe kept him enterained by racing round 2B with one of the nurses chairs.

Surgery lasted about two hours, everthing went really well. They let me hold him while he came out of anesthesia. Tomorrow we go in for the big surgery at 8:00am

The doctors said that we could let him eat whatever we thought his system could handle. I'm not sure if chocolate sunday was on thier menu

Never under estimate the healing power of a Sunday.

Thank you everyone for your support and prayers. Brodie is the strongest person I know, I will update tomorrow after the big surgery.