Fixing A Hole

This was our home away from home recently:

As most of you probably know, Matt underwent open heart surgery on Monday, February 21st to patch up the hole in his heart. You might remember back in the summer when he first started having heart troubles. He went into A-Fib then got it converted at the hospital where it was discovered he had a rather large hole in his heart in a kind of complicated area. Back in November we went in to do an up-the-groin procedure using a clam shell type device to cover the hole. Once inside though, doctors discovered the hole to be 4 times larger than originally thought and they also noticed extensive suffering and enlargement with the right side of his heart. They quickly backed out of the procedure and we were sent to get 2nd, 3rd, 4th opinions and many MRI's to confirm that, indeed, the only way to fix this hole was through open heart surgery. They would go straight into his heart and sew a heavy-duty man-made patch over the hole with the intentions that his heart will be as good as new. We latched on to an awesome heart surgeon in the Med Center here--Dr. Lawrie, who trained side by side with Dr. Debakey. Turns out he is Barbara Bush's heart surgeon, as well as the heart surgeon for many other world leaders too. We figured we were in excellent hands. Due to the enlargement and suffering going on with the right side of his heart we were advised to fix this quickly rather than later. Add to that the fact that Matt is not allowed to ride his bike or anything else physical until it is fixed and the twins are more and more mobile each day--we were definitely ready to take care of things!

Matt did great during the operation. Dr. Lawrie was ecstatic how well he did and bragged that the actual heart procedure itself took only 16 minutes. (Also meaning his heart was stopped and relying on the machine for only 16 minutes too, whew!) Total it was about an hour and a half when you factor in cutting him open, performing the actual heart procedure, then closing him back up. Our surgeon said as soon as they finished sewing the patch on, they watched the right side of his heart shrink by 50% before their very eyes! (By the time we left the hospital, images showed that the right side of his heart has already gone down to normal size.) He spent the night in ICU for observation (it was a pretty awful environment so we were so thankful to only have to endure it for one night) and got up to a room the next morning. Still extremely sore and immediately out of post-op, the next night was another rough one. The fact that we had a shared room made things 100 times worse. Our roommate was less than ideal. Between Matt and our Grandpa roommate I was up all night helping the both of them. (Not very impressed with the night nurses at Methodist :( ) Luckily we got our own private room later the next day. However, the next two days were interesting as he came off of anesthesia and his body was working at adjusting itself back to "normal". Everyone reacts differently post-op. I vomit and am constantly nauseous. We now know that Matt gets awful headaches. In addition to running a fever for a couple nights (not uncommon with his type of surgery and fluid collecting in his lungs), fun times were not had at the hospital especially with the headaches being pretty unbearable for him through the rest of the week. By the weekend, he was feeling better and getting around remarkably well. We came home on Sunday and began adjusting to what our new "normal" at home will be. Our only setback so far came this past Friday when his heart suddenly went into A-Fib again. We were told this could happen to someone after any kind of heart surgery. In fact, they were expecting it to happen right after in the hospital. Since it didn't, they told us what to do if it did once we were home. So we followed those instructions and spent this past Friday and Saturday at Memorial Hermann up here in The Woodlands where Matt got an IV drip to convert his heart back to normal. These A-Fib episodes could happen again in the coming weeks--but months from now and in the future they should never return.

For his recovery he cannot drive for at least a couple more weeks. Also he has strict lifting restrictions--No lifting for 3 months. Most of the recovery deals with healing the chest. His heart is good to go, it's just the chest bones we have to be sure to heal properly. We check up with our cardiologist this week and throughout the recovery. He anticipates being back on the bike this summer. Right now we're working up to three 10-minute walks a day. In a couple weeks, doctors want his walks to increase. Also sooner than later, he should be able to work his legs out on a stationary bike.

Our home life is definitely undergoing some adjustments for the months to come! We're so thankful for all our family and friends that helped in so many ways these past couple weeks. Everything continues to be so appreciated!

Since there is definitely no sleep to be had at the hospital and a lot of waiting around, I became addicted to a new book series:

When hearing the synopsis of this book, it's sounds awful. But I read it quickly and couldn't stop thinking about it. Needless to say I'm already halfway through Catching Fire, book 2 out of 3 in the series.

While we were fixing the hole, it was clear that Mario had the best time out of all of us. He got to spend the week with Lucy and our wonderful Aunt Cheryl!
Apparently he was extremely busy the whole time and uncovered every single dog and cat toy in Cheryl's house. One of his jobs was testing out all the beds.

And I believe he was sure to have claim on one or more of Lucy's toys at all times.
I'm watching him for signs of depression now that he's back home with us. He was clearly in Heaven with Lucy and Cheryl (and his frienemy George the cat).
The babies had a great time too with ALL their Grandparents.
It's exhausting having so much fun!

The babies also had a great 6 month appointment last week. Cole is actually in the 70th percentile for height--not bad for a preemie! And although our Cammy girl still doesn't register much on the percentile chart for everything, she does come in at 25th percentile for her height on there too. We were instructed to officially start foods with every meal. Green Beans and Green Sweet Peas are a huge hit in this house! So much so that we're probably ready to move on to the "yellow" food group this next week. Bring on the carrots and squash!