Latest on Jake's recovery

From BJ and Tammy:

Well, B.J. and I got in bed after 1:00 this morning only to be woken up before 4:00 AM by a nurse from the CICU. Lyndsey was the charge nurse, and had sent her to get us because Jake's heart had slowed way down, and his stats were falling. They called in the surgeon, and, after an echo of his heart, he went into Jake's open chest to remove a blood clot.

The clot was hindering Jake's heart from beating as it should, and therefore reducing the oxygen and blood flowing through his body. When Dr. Kirshbom cleaned the area of clots, there was no profuse bleeding (which is really good news), and he saw that the bleeding he was experiencing after surgery had slowed sufficiently, and is very normal for a baby 12 hours post-op of this type of surgery.

Lyndsey also called Matt (Piland - her husband) to come and be with us. The hospital had called the Chaplain to come see us, and Lyndsey wanted us to have someone there that we were comfortable with and knew. Matt sat with us for the two LONG hours before we could go see Jake again. He prayed with us, over us, and encouraged us... and when words escaped us all (yes, even B.J.), he sat and stared at the floor with us. But was SUCH a comfort during a trying time.

I don't know if we mentioned what exactly they did to Jake's heart yesterday... obviously, it was a very involved surgery since it was nine hours long. They basically patched his VSD (hole), cut out the portion of the aorta that was too small (the coarctation) and patched that back together, seperated his right and left ventricals, and did an arterial switch on his pulmonary and aortic arteries. Each very tedious since his heart is about the size of a strawberry. Dr. Kirshbom is THE MAN!!!!!

B.J. and I are actually home - repacking and geting ready to go back to the hospital. Mama and Daddy are sitting with Jake, and we have Sam. We can't even begin to express what a blessing and God-send they are to be here with us... Today has been so great to be able to spend time with Sam. He has wanted nothing more than for us to sit in the floor with him in our laps and play, which we have GLADLY obliged. He has been SO GOOD and SWEET through all of this!

Oh! And a little humor / what were we thinking / typical of me and B.J. ........

While Jake was having open heart surgery, Uncle Bo and Aunt Jen took Sam flying in the King Air for Sam's first plane ride! He LOVED IT!!!! He flew right seat the whole way, and wore the headset!

Thank you so much for the continued prayers... Jake still has a lot of recovering to do, and his numbers, although not ideal, are increasing and headed in the right direction.