TeamNick

07/13/2023

🎉 Next week is Birthday week 🎉

Tuesday is Nick’s 16th birthday!

I’ve always said Nick was my early birthday present as he was born two days before my birthday which is Thursday.

07/13/2023

Monday we go for Nick’s next follow up appointment since his open heart surgery.

The last appointment roughly 2 weeks ago his blood pressure was still high & he had fluid around his heart.

If you’ve message etc and I haven’t gotten back to you I’m sorry.
Right now it’s minute by minute day by day.

Continued prayers appreciated

07/02/2023

07/01/2023

Nick went 12 years of his life without any heart issues that we knew of.
That changed the end of 2019 when his bp started going up staying extremely high and he ended up in heart failure. All of this and constant extremely high bp causes a lot of additional damage to his heart due to CHD. It’s been 2 weeks since he had open heart surgery.

06/30/2023

Follow up today after surgery!
Everything looks really good!
Dr was amazed at how the surgery was done so that he won’t have to take blood thinners the rest of his life but short term.
Also the fact that it’s already helping things with his heart look better.
He does have fluid around his heart so we have to get it off.
He has one valve with a small leak and still has a murmur but both look and sound a lot better.
He is of course still on restriction no lifting, pushing, pull, void anything that can cause trauma to his chest, etc & no submerging in water until further notice.
Still has to take it easy and manage pain to prevent bp from raising.
His bp today was the lowest we’ve seen it in along time but was still high.
He goes back in 2 weeks for another follow up.
Thank you to all that have been praying for Nick please keep those prayers coming.

06/28/2023

Day 13 after OHS

Very sore so struggling with chest pain and over does it easy.

We go see his primary cardiologist at USA tomorrow.
Sent pictures of his incision and areas where the drain tubes were to Children’s hospital of New Orleans yesterday evening so should hear from them again today.

I think him and my dads gonna go for a ride after lunch today so he’s kinda looking forward to that. Dad leaves out Sunday so he wanted to get him time away from the house with him. Hopefully he won’t over do it!

Still a ways to go to recover from intense open heart surgery.
Continued thoughts and prayers appreciated♥️

06/27/2023

Better late than never a special thank you to Paityn for spending the day prior to us leaving for surgery with Nick ♥️

06/21/2023

Nick says his scar is proof he has a heart.

06/20/2023

We are home! However it’s really too soon! Nick was so tired of the bed and being so uncomfortable he did everything he could to get home.
They really need beds for tall people or with the piece at the foot that can be adjusted maybe dropped down if needed so the patient can stretch out.
The drs, nurses, etc were amazing! Everyone did everything they could to make it a good experience aside from one person who got put in her place real fast (there’s always that one person regardless of where hospital, job, etc)

He’s still in a good bet of pain and can’t handle much right now.
He decided to walk in with me to get his meds which I told him I didn’t think was a good idea
..I was right unfortunately!
He’s home in his room in his bed.
We have a list of things to watch for hopefully nothing happens that’ll cause him to have to return to the hospital. He will see his primary cardiologist in about a week if not before. He’s breathing is rather shallow so we’re working on that.
Can’t lift, push, pull, etc etc most of y’all know the precautions of heart conditions and or heart surgery.

He cannot be around anyone sick at all!

06/18/2023

They’ve removed all the drain tubes, everything but one IV.
He has an air pocket in his lung they’re working on and watching. He’s holding fluid so we’re working to get it off.
He went for a good walk yesterday with papa. He’s working hard to get to where he’s able to go home so he can get comfortable.

We appreciate everyone that’s keeping up with him and keeping him in your thoughts and prayers.

06/17/2023

Update sorry yesterday was well tough and exhausting I guess you could say.
Nick is stable! He’s weak and in a lot of pain as you can imagine. They are closely monitoring him in CICU.
They are currently checking his blood to make sure the levels are good due to some blood loss.
It wasn’t a lot but he started getting lightheaded if it is they’ll have to give him a little more blood.
So far all the other blood work, X-rays, etc have come back good.
The drs and staff have been amazing & I/we are so thankful for this group.
They have been very impressed with Nick and how his handling everything and pushing forward even though it’s difficult and comes with a lot of pain etc.
He’s beyond ready to be in a bed he can get comfortable in and that’s long enough. He’s miserable not being able to comfortably stretch his long legs out in addition to everything else.
They just came in this morning and removed one IV still has the line in his neck.
Plans are to remove the other two drain tubes after he walks a little more & probably a longer distance to make sure it’s drained good hopefully today but we shall see.

Today is Seldon’s graduation
Hopefully he’ll be ok & agree with me leaving awhile today him hanging out with Papa so I can go to Seldon’s graduation today.
I don’t like leaving him & being that far away for an extended time period but if he’s ok since I’m comfortable with it I’ll go because I know he’ll be taken care of… we’ll see how things are in a little while.

We’re all beyond tired etc sorry I was delayed on updates yesterday.
I’ll update again later!