Monday ended up being a little more exciting than we would have wanted. The first 24 hours after surgery are some of the most critical hours of the recovery. The body is at it's weakest, especially the parts that were operated on.

For the most part, Joshua was handling things well. They had him on a number of different medications for his blood pressure, heart rate, a diuretic to help draw out the fluids making him swollen, pain, and sedation and he also had a breathing tube. All of this seemed to be helping and he was right where they expected him to be.

However, around 4 pm, he had a messy diaper which had a lot of blood in it. This really scared the medical team because bloody stool is a sign of a very serious problem in the gut. Sometimes after heart surgery, the heart has a hard time pumping the blood far enough to get to some of the lower parts of the body, including the intestines. Plus, the intestines require a lot of blood flow to to the energy and nutrients it needs to work properly. When it does not get the right amount, the inside walls can start to get eaten away by the bacteria in the gut and start to sluff off, thus the bloody stool.

They immediately started him on some antibiotics and scheduled an x-ray every 6 hours to check his intestines for any holes or dead tissue. If either of those things happened, he would require emergency surgery. The general surgery team came to assess him and determined no surgery was required at this time, but we were to keep a very close watch on him.

Fortunately, nothing else gave any clues that his intestines were getting any worse.  They continued to watch this very closely throughout the night.

Here are some pics of our little man on this day!

Logan got to see Joshua for the first time today, as well!  He was very concerned the whole time and kept pointing and saying "Josh."  We were able to explain that Joshua is sick right now and he has to have all that stuff on him because it is helping make him better.  Fortunately, we are allowed to have Logan come see him once a day for a few minutes.  We are really happy about that so we can help Logan understand as much as possible.

A close up of his little face. You can also see his white vest over his open chest and his breathing tube.

All the monitors, medications, and breathing machine he is hooked up to.  There is not much room for us, but we make it work.