One Month After Surgery

Today it has been one month exactly since Garrett's surgery and as you can see he is all smiles and doing great! He'll get a check up with his cardiologist in a few weeks. It was difficult getting this guy to pose for me. He kept swinging his arms around, so you can tell he has plenty of energy. He is also now down to one medication, which is one "baby" Aspirin a day and luckily they are orange flavored and chewable so he doesn't mind taking it. We are so glad to have this surgery over with!

Our Early Christmas

Our next slide show is our early Christmas with Curtis. We had emailed a letter to Santa asking if he could come to our house early since Curtis wouldn't be here on the 25th. This year we celebrated our Christmas on the 16th and Santa was happy to oblige. It was just as fun and magical for them as if it really was Christmas day, even though we were the only ones celebrating that day. Nicole finally got her bow and arrow that she's been asking for all year. That was from Santa. She also got a Princess sleeping bag and an apron that I made her that is princesses on one side and Tinker Bell on the other. Garrett got some cool Buzz Lightyear wings from Santa. It even has buttons that he can push and it has recordings like on the movie "To infinity and beyond!", etc. He LOVES it! He also got a Toy Story sleeping bag and an apron that I made him that has "Cars" on both sides. Both of my kids like to help me cook sometimes so I thought they would enjoy having their own aprons. Nikki also gave Garrett a toy dinosaur and she gave Jack a ring stacker toy. Jack got a toy train from Santa and a walker from us. Curtis got a new VCR/DVD player (he bought it so we could use it before Christmas so it wasn't under the tree.) I had to help Nikki decide what the kids were going to get him so I decided since we didn't have the game "Uno" that it would be a good one. I know, I can't believe I've gone all these years without having "Uno" in our home. After all, I grew up with it as our family favorite. We would always play it. We also found "Hook" on dvd for him (really for all of us). Then I got a snowflake necklace from Nikki and a new cd player that I can hook my zune up to. I finally don't have to blare the speakers from the computer to be able to listen to music in the kitchen. Oh, and then I bought a cd for both of us, Taylor Swift "Fearless". I love her!
That same morning Curtis's parents came over and gave us a gift also. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" on dvd and a bunch of goodies to eat while watching it! We didn't do much the rest of the day since my stomach just wasn't feeling right all day. We had even planned on going out to eat for Christmas dinner but I didn't want to chance getting sick at a restaurant so Curtis ordered Domino's pizza instead. And even though I thought I might regret it I ate the pizza too. Luckily nothing happened and I was fine the next day. So it was a very nice Christmas and great to be able to celebrate it with Curtis home this year.

Post Surgery Photos

Sorry for the delay in updating the blog. I'm finally making time to do it. Here are some photos from after Garrett's surgery while he was in the hospital. I have to say their playroom they have there is awesome and was a life saver! They had so many different things for kids to do. From toys, to art projects, to video games, to piano playing, etc. I will post a couple of more slide shows of our Christmas, so be looking for them in the next day or so. By the way, Garrett is doing great in his recovery since he's been home. He was on oxygen until the 17th. That was a real pain so we were very happy to get rid of that. He's running around and talking up a storm. It's now been just about 4 weeks since the surgery. Thank you everyone for your prayers and support!

Daddy's homecoming and Garrett's surgery

Well, Curtis made it home safe and sound this past Sunday evening. He had some flight changes and went to San Francisco instead of Chicago but his luggage was still sent to Chicago. The airlines had it shipped to Boise and delivered it to our door in the middle of the night. Anyhow, the next day we took off to Utah to get Garrett's surgery done. Tuesday was all of Garrett's pre op appointments and Curtis was kind enough to take him to all of that while I rested at the condo with Nikki and Jack. That evening we went to my aunt's house where she made us some delicious dinner of enchiladas and other great foods as well. Not to mention one of my new favorite flavors of ice cream, mint cookies n cream. Yum!! Then on Wednesday we kinda relaxed during the day and then Curtis took Garrett to a pre surgery class. After they got back we decided to do something fun with the kids since it was the night before surgery and took them to the Mayan restaurant in Sandy, UT. I do have to say the only reason we went there was the atmosphere and the diving show for the kids to enjoy. The food was not that great. I especially did not like their refried beans. Great restaurant for entertainment but not for food.

Day of surgery came and Garrett was all smiles from the time he woke up, which was around 5:30am until we parted with him 2 hrs later. He was so happy to play with toys in each waiting room and was having such a good time he didn't even ask for food or drink once. For surgery they have to be fasting. He happily let the nurse take his vital signs and enjoyed putting on his hospital clothes. My favorite part was when the anesthesiologist was pulling him away in the wagon towards the operating room he waved and yelled "Bye Mom! Bye Dad!" with a smile on his face. That made the day so much easier for me. I was also able to go back to the condo to take a nap with Jack during the surgery (the surgery was 5-6 hrs in length) also. The surgery went very well. He was in the ICU for 2 days and is now in the Children's Surgical Unit in his own room. I actually had a more difficult day yesterday because we couldn't take Jack into the ICU so we had to take turns. But now that he's in his own room Jack is allowed in and we can all be in there together. Garrett is doing well and is slowly starting to eat and drink. He hasn't been very happy though and not wanting to do much but sleep. The nurse recently gave him some medicine to help with pain on his sides and he's taking a nap. So hopefully when he wakes up he'll be a little happier. That's the update for now. Here are some pictures from this week.

It took a little while but Jack finally warmed up to his Daddy the night he came home. At least he didn't cry the first time Daddy held him.

Daddy giving the kids a ride to bed. Can you tell they missed him?

This is at the Mayan restaurant.

Jack and Daddy at the Mayan restaurant.

This is what they had outside the Mayan restaurant. This restaurant looks really cool. Great decorations and surroundings.

I think Nikki is trying to be a snake charmer.

This is Garrett when we were riding up the elevator the morning of surgery.

He didn't waste any time finding the toys.

Now Jack is joining the fun.

The nurse was taking his temperature and showing him what it said.

Surprisingly Garrett actually wanted that blood pressure thing on his arm.

Now he has his hospital clothes on.

This is him being wheeled away by the anesthesiologist. As he was rounding the corner and going through the double doors he yelled out "Bye Mom! Bye Dad!" with a smile on his face and was having a good time.

And this is after surgery. Every once in awhile he would raise one arm, even while he was sleeping. He looks like he wants to ask a question.

This is the first time he opened his eyes for me. Obviously not smiling now.