Picture Story

These are pictures of Johnathan from his first pictures and a couple of him in Cincinnati before his heart surgery. He weight was from 1lb 13 1/2 oz. to 3lbs 4 oz.

Cincinnati Children's The heart surgery

JT was in Cincinnati for 3 weeks. I thought this was just going to be about a week stay and then he came back. NOPE!! Sure wasn’t. I got to see him 3 times while he was down there. Stacy went with me and took pictures and gave them to me as a gift. We had a great time visiting with him. I didn’t like Cincinnati at all. They were so different. They were sterile. At Dayton and Miami Valley, it was homey and nice. All the nurses were nice and the lighting was low and they kept it really nice for the babies and parents.

Cincinnati was brash and clash. Lights were blaring, they covered the baby’s faces with blankets, it was terrible. My first visit there, the nurse said I was agitating him. And was going to give him some adavant. It scared me because well, I know he wasn’t agitated he was just moving. He was interacting with me and glad to see me. He was trying to reach for my hand and well we all know baby’s coordination skills are not very good and he was still not supposed to be born yet. I told her no under no circumstances do you give my baby that. She had a fit and told me that I didn’t have a say so in it and that he was agitated. Mind you during all of this, his stats were wonderful. No heartbeat going down, oxygen great blood pressure great. He was moving that was the problem. I also threw a fit about the blanket over his face. It was like to me that they didn’t want to see their faces to remind them that a little person was in there and not just something in a bed that needed monitoring. I just didn’t feel the caring and loving that I felt at Dayton. I was not told anything was not let in on medicines and procedures. It was horrible for me. But, that is my opinion and others might have found it to be just wonderful. I didn’t.

Johnathan had his heart surgery and I must admit his heart surgeon was the best and he talked to me like I was a person and treated JT like he was a person.

What he had done was a PDA ligation which was to close the vessel that didn’t close after birth and did a banding. The banded a vessel to keep blood flow to a minimum to help with the circulation. He did great during surgery. When we finally got to see him He looked very bloated. This was a norm for him after surgery. He had one little tear coming out of his eye. He was coming out of it and was having a lot of pain. The Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU), was a lot better then the NICU. The listened to me and he was given some pain meds. I stayed as long as I could. Mike had to go to work the next day, so we had to leave soon after. It broke my heart. I wanted to stay so bad. To let him know that everything was going to be ok. I prayed, and prayed, and called and called.

He got through the night and the next two days great. He was coming home. When I say home I mean Dayton NICU. I was never so happy, and I was there to greet him. He looked wonderful and his incision was pretty much healed up. It amazed me and he grew in those two days like you wouldn’t believe and he was out of the incubator. He was in a warmer. Big milestone. I thought that I would just be able to see my baby through a window. But, no he was on a warmer and I could kiss and love all over him and just hold his hand and not have to speak to him through a door. It was awesome.

How to fix a heart

In the beginning of October the cardiologist came to me and told me that they had ran enough tests and have figured out the anatomy of his heart and what they were going to do to fix it. It seemed that all of his arteries and his aorta where going to the other left instead of the right and that they were forming an aortic arch around his windpipe. This is what was making it hard for him to come off of the vent. So, she told me the plan. They would be transferring him to Cincinnati Children’s. He would be in the NICU there and they were going to do the PDA ligation and put in a PDA banding to constrict blood flow to his heart so that he could come off the ventilator and he could grow and then when he was about 1 year old then he would have the surgery to close the heart. I was happy they had finally figured something out but, scared to death of him being transferred to Cincinnati. I knew nothing about this place and it was so far away. I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it down there much. And that also meant that he would be alone in a place where no one knew him. He knew people up here. He had mostly the same nurses and the doctors where the same. Heck the cleaning lady was the same everyday. I just didn’t know what to expect and when you don’t know what to expect you get really anxious. I really didn’t want to let him go but, the day came with that wonderful announcement that he would be leaving in the next week. Ack! Not what I wanted to hear.


JT was scheduled to leave that Monday. I prayed and I prayed. Lord, please let them treat him right, don’t let him forget me. Don’t let him think I am just a nurse passing through. Let him know I am his mother and remember. Just watch him please while I can’t be there.