Will's Journal

Tomorrow, Thursday, 9/20, we will be spending the day back at Santa Rosa Hospital. The good news is Will is going to have all tests (X-Rays, EGK, Echo, etc) all the same day. We will do all tests in the morning and then see the surgeons in the afternoon to have his stitches removed and go over the test results from the morning. Will is doing better everyday. Still not sleeping well, but I\'m hopeful that he will be able to sleep a full 8 hours soon : ) Thank you to everyone who has offered to help us with shopping, meals and brought Will so many great gifts and activities.

I can not even express how great it is to have Will back home. I am so looking forward to sleeping in my bed tonight too and maybe sleeping longer than 3 hours straight : ) The ride home from the hospital and walking in the house tired Will out so he has just rested today. At some points he didn\'t even want to watch tv, he just sat there in his new lift chair. He does love his new chair! I can not say how thankful I am for so many great family and friends that have helped us over the past week. Today, Ana and Sophia came to our house early this morning to disinfect and clean everything top to bottom to help keep Will healthy, my mom and Cendy came over to decorate our house to ensure Will had a special welcoming and Ray\'s parents helped pack up everything at the hospital and got Will on his way home. Some of our fabulous neighbors brought us home cooked meals and called me while they were at HEB to see what we needed. Thank you so much!!!! Tomorrow we will get the schedule of doctor appointments and tests needed this week. As of now, the doctors predict that Will is giong to have a full release for all activies as of October 31st. It is giong to be a good halloween : )

Moving on out...moving on out of the hospital. (singing) Ray is filling out release paperwork now. They should be home within the hour. Yeah!!! Will\'s chest X-ray showed air around his lungs, but doctors think it is best to get him out of the hospital, away from 101 germs, since we can do the breathing exercises and such at home. As the surgeon put it, Will needs a lot of care right now, but not medical specific care. Will is going to have to go to some kind of Dr appt or testing pretty much everyday next week, but Anything is better than staying in the hospital : ) I am so excited to have my baby boy coming home!

I apologize for my late post today. Unfortunately, I became very ill in the middle of the night. I ended up calling Ray at 4 AM since I coudn\'t stop being sick to my stomach. Ray has stayed with Will since I called him and I have been at my mom\'s getting taken care of. I did see a doctor today and found out I have a 24 hour virus, so I have not been able to see Will today. Ray has been on top of things today. Will got his last chest tube out mid morning. Yeah! Ray attended our parent CPR class for us and if Will\'s chest Xray looks good tomorrow he will be released from the hospital. We are so excited! We know that we have an amazing child. It is so like Will to have open heart surgery and be released from the hospital in record time. We are very proud of Will\'s determination and hard work through the pain. More to come tomorrow. Goodnight.

Sorry I didn\'t get a chance to write an update today. It has been a very busy day, full of some ups and some downs. The best news is that Will was released from the ICU late today and we are now all settled into our new room in the Intermediate Care wing. We have our private bathroom now, can have food in the room, will only be awoken by the nurse every 3 to 4 hours tonight and have more space. The biggest news of the day is that Will had one of his chest tubes removed this afternoon before being released from the ICU. The removal process was a little tough and painful for him, but he is so glad to have one of the tubes removed. Will has experienced a good amount of pain today, mostly stomach aches and pain in his chest from coughing or moving. Will still hasn\'t eaten much, but he did get down 2 saltine crackers today and just ate 2 pieces of a kit kat bar. I learned form the nurse tonight that chocolate is a natural laxative so she was glad to hear he ate some of a kit kat : )

Will had some tough moments this evening due to pain when moving, pain when he coughs and pain when he moves around. Will had fallen a sleep earlier in the evening @6:30pm so I was able to go eat dinner while my mom stayed with Will. When I returned he was just waking up. Will was up for playing Wii for @ 30 minutes, then back to sleep for a bit. Come about 11pm he unfortunately was having more reoccurring pain and after taking pain medication got sick to his stomach. He has only eaten those 2 halves of Popsicles so understandablebthatbhus stomach would be upset. Will really, really doesn\'t like to get sick to his stomach normally, so really not a good experience right now. He was finally able to get down 1 cracker and get to sleep about 1 am. I hope he is able tonbebcomfortablevand sleep a few hours.

Today was a very successful day. From the time Will woke up at 5AM he was determined to sit in a chair and do as much as he could to help his healing process. He ended up eating 2 popsicles today, a lot of ice chips and drinking water, Sprite and some Gatorade. He sat up in a chair 4 different times today and even talked the Family Life Specialist into bringing him a portable Wii to challenge me, Ray and Grammy at a few games today. Even with limited movement and under the influence of pain medicine, Will can still beat me at Wii games : ) The Chief Surgeon, Dr. Calhoon, came to see us about 3:30 PM today and liked how Will\'s heart sounds and his progress so far. He is concerned in getting Will to walk a bit and work on his breathing exercies to clear up his lungs and get them full functioning so that we can avoid the risk of pneumonia. After talking with Dr. Calhoon Will did say he is up for trying to walk a bit. He got 2 more iv\'s removed and his nurse, Jasmine, tunred his heart monitor cords and chest tubes into mobile packs. Will, Jasmine, me and MeMe walked down the hall about 4 PM today. It was a super exciting time! I\'ll post a picture of Will up and walking in a bit. He was not able to move real fast and clinged very tightly to my hand, but he did it! We are hoping to make more good progress tomorrow so we can get out of the ICU. Thank you so much for the continued prayers, support and positive thoughts. All is working : )

Will has slept most of the night. I even got a few hours sleep in his ICU room too. Will woke up at 4am, coherent of his surroundings. The surgeon wanted the ICU nurse, Alexis (overnight nurse), to help Will sit up in bed and dangle his feet off the side. After a lot of preparations and some painful moments for Will...he did it! Will had a few really tough minutes of pain in his chest and hard times to get his breathe. He thought he was going to get sick so I was ready with the handy medical bucket, but happy to report he didn\'t get sick and he was incredibly tough through the pain. I am so proud of him! He has begging for some water since last night and him completing this maneuver is a good step towards getting something to drink or ice chips. Alexis gave his vitals and results of his sitting up event to the doctor and I am thrilled to let you all know that ice chips are on their way. For all my Lancer friends, the ICU here has a Hoshizaki ice machine so you know it\'s going to be some great tasting ice : ) At 5:20am today, 9/13, Will recieved a cup of ice chips and is eating them like it\'s the best snow cone he has ever had. His coloring is coming back in his face and he is acting like his clever self. I took a picture of him eating his ice chips that I will post, he even smiled for the pic. He is so excited to have the ice chips! Of course now he is asking for a Sprite...we are not quiet ready for a real drink yet according to the ICU doctor. If Will doesn\'t get sick after eating the ice chips he may be getting that Sprite soon though : )

Around 5pm yesterday, 9/12, Will decided it was time for him to wake up. His ICU nurse, Cindy, was prepared since she found out a few hours before how strong Will is. Cindy saw Will\'s foot twitch and quickly called for the ICU Doctor and others to assist. Will quickly sat straight up disconnecting the ventilator tube. It took 8 medical professionals to hold him down and calm him down. The ventilator tube was then removed from his throat. It was a pretty tough process, but do great to have the ventilator tube out. Will was given another sedative to rest after all the excitement so Ray and I took a break and ate some good food for dinner.

Wow, amazing news and timing! We were just told they are done with the ross procedure. So less than 3 hours in surgery. Will is off bypass, his heart is beating on it\'s own. The nurse and one of the doctors came out and said all went well. Will is giong to need to stay on the ventilator tube and will require more medications and for longer than they originally thought, but these are small things we can deal with. They will be closing him up and then the Chief Surgeon, Dr. Calhoon, will be coming out to talk to us. We are so relieved! Our large group of family and friends here support us loudly clapped as we got the good news : ) Yeah! Ray and I know the many prayers we recieved from so many of you had a very positive effect on the surgery. Thank you!

Just got next update. All is going fine. Surgeons are about to work on his actual valve. Will\'s heart is more rigid then expected so they will be waking him up very slowly after surgery, which means he will need to remain on a ventilator tube for a while after surgery.

Will was taken back to the operating room a little before 8 AM. We were given the first update from the nurse a little after 9 AM that all lines were in and the surgeon was going to start the incision. Ray and I are surrounded with a lot of family and friends. We should be getting another updagte about 10:30 AM.

After a long day of pre-op preparations we are finally settled into our room for the night. Getting ready to eat Chik Fil A that fabulous Cendy and Jose are bringing. Then we plan to watch Jurassic Park and go to bed. Surgery preparations start at 7am tomorrow. I plan to have one of my good friends update this website throughout the day tomorrow. Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers. Goodnight!

Ray and I feel so fortunate to have our great families and so many wonderful friends. We are very thankful for all the prayers and thoughts. Our neighbor, Ann Jenske, has coordinated a mass be offered for Will tomorrow at SEAS at 8 AM. Thank you Ann and all of our friends and family members!

We celebrated Will\'\'s birthday early this year. He decided to invite 5 of his closest friends to Schlitterbah this past weekend. We had an absolutely great time. We stayed in the Treehaus suite, got to ride the boogie bahn after the park closed Saturday night and, thanks to my good friend Cari Richardson, we were the first people to ride the Master Blaster Sunday morning. I have posted a picture of the boys under the My Photos tab. Happy early birthday Will!