One Man Band

Brodie is feeling great and recovering fast. Despite how great he looks, the fluid around his lungs has slightly increased again. Not enough to need to be drained again, but enough to leave the tube in for at least another day. So now we are just hoping to be home by Saturday.

driving his car around 2B

He found some music equipment in the cardiac play room
And then he became a one man band. He was so into it, he was nodding his head and trying to dance

He has come so far in one week

Healing

Today was a very welcomed non-eventful, boring day. Last night Brodie got unhooked from the oxygen, he also lost the last IV that he had in his hand. Now all he has is the monitor stickers and the chest tube. The doctors say that as long as nothing changes tonight they will remove the tube in the morning. That is all good news, because as long as nothing unexpected happens we will probably go home on Thursday.

Watching a new favorite, Finding Nemo for the tenth time since we have been here

We were also allowed to leave 2B today and take Brodie down to the cafeteria

Big Improvments

We had the most pleasant day in the hospital today. Last night Brodie slept through the whole night for the first time since surgery. What a difference a good night sleep made, for all three of us. Brodie woke up in the best mood. He ate all three meals and had lots of snacks in between. I was happy that he never tried to stand up today, so at least he knows that he still needs to take it easy. We spent most of the day snuggling on the bed watching movies. It was very peaceful. After all we have been through the past few days, today was a much needed change.

Digging into his breakfast

This kid just loves bacon
Playing with his horses

He was so happy when Joe got back from Pimlico

All day long he was full of kisses. I is so nice to see him feeling better

Minor Setback

Last night we had an awful night. I think we only got two hours of sleep. Poor little Brodie was so uncomfortable, we wasn't eating well and he was breathing really hard. The nurses and doctors were also concerned with his extremely high heart rate, it was staying between 160 and 175 BPM. After some tests and examinations we found out that Brodie had a lot of extra fluid surrounding his lungs. The best way to fix this was by inserting a tube and removing the extra fluid because it was not only making him uncomfortable, but his right lung was partially collapsed. The procedure only took about twenty minutes and he was brought right back to our room. Immediately we could see improvements. His heart rate is now staying between 110 and 120 BPM. He also slept very peaceful for a few hours, and when he woke up he drank a whole sippy cup of water and ate half of a banana. Hopefully we just have smooth sailing from here

This is the tube that will stay in for a few day

Sitting up and eating his banana

Lots of Rest

Well today Brodie is just resting as much as possible. He seems very content being in our room, however for the first time in his life he doesn't want to be held. So far he has just laid down and watched movies, and slept a lot. He wants me to stand by his bed and hold his hand, I would be a little worried about him if he wasn't squeezing my fingers so hard. Since he has been staying in bed I have tried to make it as comfortable as I can with Pillows ans blankets, which he really seems to like.

Watching Finding Nemo this morning

Eating Bacon, he was so excited to see bacon

I think he looks pretty comfortable
He wouldn't let go even when he fell asleep

He was trying to tell me a story but whenever he tried to talk it made him cough, and coughing made him tear up so it was sad

Cookie Monster got a wound dressing too

Out of ICU

Brodie got moved out of ICU at 9:00pm. I have spent all day over in the ICU with him waiting to bring him over to our room. At first he was suppose to come over at 4:00 but when thy started trying to move him, he absolutely flipped out. He stood straight up, ripped the nasal cannula out of his nose and hit the nurse. Personally I was surprised and glad to see how much strength he still had. The doctors and nurses were shocked so they all started calling him the little mighty man.
canal

While he was still in ICU

In our room on 2B

We are so happy to have him back in our room

First Look

Brodie just got out of surgery. They let us run into ICU and look at him briefly before the fully get him set up in there. So far I think he looks great. His color is normal and he doesn't look to swollen to me. We talked to his surgeon, Dr. Pizarro who is the greatest man alive. He seemed very pleased with everything and even said they may think about taking him off the ventilator and all the Arterial lines sometime tonight. However they have witnessed the last two days how active Brodie is, so they may just keep him heavily sedated tonight.

They don't make them any tougher

One Down

Yesterday Brodie had Cath surgery, they inserted caths in to his femoral artery in his left thigh. They also inserted one on this neck to get a better look at his lung where they will be attaching the blue blood veins to today. Brodie is in surgery, for hopefully the last time. This is his 6th heart surgery in 18 months, four open heart and two Caths However it doesn't seem to get any easier. Here are some pics of Brodie after yesterday's surgery, and the night before.

Little man pigging out on Benihana's and Filet

This is where the inserted the Cath in his neck

In the recovery room, happy to finally be allowed to drink something

At 6:00pm we got to bring back to our room and eat dinner

What a trooper

Big Boy Bed

Hi everyone, sorry it has been so long since my last post. We haven't been going out much since our Florida trip. Brodie is going in on Tuesday for surgery, so we have been trying to keep him in and limit his exposure to getting sick. All week we have been doing some serious cleaning so that our house will be ready for Brodie to come home from the hospital. Since we were already cleaning, we decided to make a few changes too. Brodie has never really liked his crib, so we made it into a day bed. Now he loves it. All day long he climbs on and off of it. He loves bringing toys on to the bed and playing with them. About an hour after we were finished converting it, Brodie took his first nap in his "big boy" bed.

No more crib

This is such a big boy room now

climbing on his bed

He loves it

Fishing with dad, and Da in the river behind our house

He would live outside if we let him

Brodie's first surgery is scheduled for 9:30 Tuesday morning, and Wednesday he has the big one at 8:30am I will be updating from the hospital.

Disney World

Well I finally got my Disney pictures developed, and I have to say I never realized how much I love my camera until now. Unfortunately a lot of the pictures didn't come out because of lighting.

Wearing out Mickey ears

Cinderella's Castle

On the Tea Cups

Brodie got to go into Winnie the Pooh's house

Joe and Brodie on Dumbo

Maam'a got to spend the whole day with us at Disney

Here are some more pictures from Ocala

I think that Brodie kissed every horse on the farm