Infusaport

On Monday, July 2nd, Baby Eric had his first surgery. He had an infusaport put in so that blood draws are much easier on him. This allows the doctors to put numbing cream on his skin and poke him ONE time and have access to an artery without the pain that normally come along with artery sticks. Blood drawn from arteries give a much more pure lab result because the blood is more free flowing from the artery, which means less clotting. Because we need to check Eric's potassium less clotting is what we need. When your blood clots, potassium is one of the things that shows up in larger quantities. It helps your blood clot....so, when clotting happens when we draw labs on Eric, it shows that his potassium is much higher than it really is, which means more blood sticks and panic for everyone. We don't want it to be too high.

Anyway, back to the surgery! Surgery went well. They had to put in the port by cutting near his neck and then check it by running a wire on each side of his chest to make sure the artery was found and that it goes through to the heart. Surgery was an outpatient procedure so as soon as he woke up and drank 3 ounces of juice, we got to go home. Because he is so little, they couldn't give him over a certain amount of anesthesia, so he woke up a little to early. They said it was right as they were taking him from surgery to recovery. Surgery was over, but too soon to wake up and not get sick. He was given pain medication that is safe for the kidneys. For him, that medicine worked really fast and it didn't take much at all. That medicine knocked him out cold for about an hour and a half. He got a second dose when we moved from recovery to the almost home room. So, he looks really drugged in these pictures...because he is!

I got to take off his bandages yesterday morning and his port seems to be just a small bulge under his right nipple. I don't know how swollen it is, so it may go down a little when it is all said and done. He doesn't seem to hurt unless he bumps it or if we bump it. It is very difficult to pick him up because his chest is sore. I have been giving him tylenol because that is all he can take. The pain medicine at the hospital is like morphine, so unfourtunately, they couldn't send that home with us. So, the only non narcotic that he can take is tylenol. Which means baby Eric is tough as a boot!

He now weighs 14 pounds 2 ounces with his jammies and a clean diaper on. He is also 25.5 inches long! He is growing!!!!!