Monday, April 13, 2009

Our little Super Hero Ashton



























On March 31 our Ashton had Open Heart Surgery. They went it through his sternum sawing it in half. He was on a heart and lung machine (bypass) , they put his body on Ice and lowered his body temp to 17 degrees. They told us the surgery would take 5-8 hours. We said good bye to our baby at 7:30am and his surgery began at about 9 am. We received hour updates and at 12 noon they told us he was done with surgery and they were taking him off bypass. Only three hours!! At 1:15 the doctor came and talked with us telling us every thing went so smoothly and that Ashton's heart is a really strong heart. Relief swept over both of us. At about 1:45 we saw Ashton. He was still on the breathing machine although trying to wake up. He opened his eyes and saw Randy with in mins of us getting to him and mouthed the words 'daddy'. I knew at that moment EVERY THING was going to be fine. He had three drainage tubes coming out of his chest, one in each lung and one in his heart. He had a cath for his pee. He had 4 Iv lines, one in his heart, one in his neck, one in an arm and one in a foot. He was also on alot of monitors to keep track of everything else. He was not able to move with all this in so I spent alot of the first two days in the bed with him, it seemed the only way to keep him happy. He did so well and each day we saw such improvement. On Thursday they moved us from the ICU to the recovery floor. It was like going to a luxury suite! He did even better in his own room and they sent us home on Sat morning! what we were told would take 10 days only took 5. Ashton is our super hero and we thank our Heavenly Father every day for him. He is doing great at home although it is really hard to keep a 3 year old from jumping every where! Thank you so much to every one for their out pouring of love and prayers.

4 comments:

Anza said...

Wow! What an amazing little miracle you guys have. He looks so fragile hooked up to all those machine, but it's nice to see through the photos his fight to feel better. I am so happy that everything went so smoothly for you. We will continue to pray for you and the strength you will need to keep up with the little firecracker. Talk to you soon!

tolman said...

aston can you say what simba saiys " i laugh at the sight of danger ha ha ha

Wendy Swann said...

Way to go champ!

Landon and Dana said...

Hey Tara! First.. twins.. that is so great for the parents and so amazing that you get to do that for them!!! And way to go Ashton!!! I've never met him, but he sure looks like a champ! I am so sorry that i missed your call and i sure hope that we can find some other time in our crazy lives to meet up! thinking of you