What a week...

Thanks to everyone who has been praying, calling, and texting these last several weeks.  Tripp is truly a miracle baby that still has a lifetime ahead of him to show the world how strong he is!  I would also like to say thanks to my family (my sisters, parents, Kinsley, and Jim) for driving up to Augusta with us and being there while Tripp had surgery. 

We checked in to the hospital on Tuesday morning at 11:00 am and turned Tripp over to Dr. Macomson and his surgical team.  That was one of the scariest things I have ever done!!!  We sat in the waiting area during the surgery and kept waiting for the phone to ring with updates.  Surgery was scheduled to start at 12.  At 12:27, the nurse called me to say they had just started and that Tripp was doing great.  The surgery was to take anywhere from 60-95 minutes.  At 12:38, the phone rang again and the nurse told me Dr. Macomson was on his way out to talk to us.  When he came out, he said that Tripp did great and that the team was closing him up and that we should see him in the next half hour.  He said that it only lasted about 40 minutes!  When we got into recovery, Tripp was whining and trying to wake up.  He was so pitiful.  I felt his soft spot and WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!!  An hour after surgery and it was normal!  The nurse let me feed him and this seemed to make him better.  We sat in recovery for almost 2 hours and then we were on our way to a room for the night.  He was doing so good that we were allowed to stay on the fifth floor of CMC which is a regular pediatric floor and not in the NICU or PICU!  Praise the Lord!  Because he was sent to 5th floor, we got to stay with him.  Around 5 that afternoon, the nurse gave him morphine to control the pain.  He was so out of it and just not a happy, smiling baby that we were so used to seeing.  Around midnight we were faced with giving him another dose of morphine or just tylenol.  We tried the tylenol because we knew he would be going home the next day and just wanted to make sure that it would control the pain enough...and it did.  I finally saw a smile from Tripp around 2:30 am.  What a sight! 

At 2:30, he kicked his IV out of his foot and the nurses tried a few more times, unsuccessfully, to put it back in.  He has small veins and its hard to get the needle to stay in.  A PIC team came in at 5:30 to put in a pic line so that all of his meds could be given as well as his fluids without the continuous sticking.  About 7:30 we started our day of drs (always looks like an episode of house at MCG because it is a training facility) coming in and out in herds!  You have attending drs, fellows, residents, and nurses.  After they leave your room, they stand out in hallway and discuss!  It is just like you see on tv!  We saw Dr. Macomson again (neurosurgeon) and he actually showed us what the vp shunt looks like and how they put it in.  I can't believe some rubber tubing and a plastic valve are all Tripp needed to have put in to fix this problem! 

Tripp has 4 incisions.  He has one in the back of his head where the shunt was placed, one on the right side of his neck where they started fishing the tube down, one in his belly button where the scope went in to guide the tube, and one on the upper, right side of abdomen to pull the tubing into that area.  His head is half shaved and I hope that his hair grows back quickly!  You can see the shunt.  It looks like a small finger under the skin and feels hard.  It will always be able to be felt but as he grows and his hair grows, it will not be as noticeable. 

We were discharged about lunch time and have several follow up appointments in the near future.  We came home to a roast with carrots, onions, and potatoes compliments of my mama!  It was nice to not have to cook dinner and get to enjoy a home cooked meal!  We are going to take it easy for a few days and see how things go before I can return to work.

Thanks again for all of the support and prayers through our entire journey!  Keep them coming as we continue to get answers to many more questions regarding Tripp.  A HUGE thanks also to Kim Lucky from MCG and for all that she has done for us since our journey started there last June.  She means the world to us and has made our trips and stays there so easy!  Also, I would like to say thanks to the Grant family for their hospitality as we come and crash their house with a place to stay when we are back and forth between appointments. 

T.R.I.P.P.

I am still learning about this blog and I am trying to figure out how to keep adding pictures!  If you know how please let me know!!  (Magaen????)