Day 5 - Surgery T-minus 1 day

So today was the big move to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). These are the guys that deal with a lot of the heart issues and children. We loved being in the NICU with all the great nurses, doctors and parents, but it is nice to have our own room with Judah and space to spread out a bit.

The PICU is a different place. In the NICU there were 7 babies in a room and just about as many nurses, visiting was very limited (parents only) and they had very structured processes and procedures. In PICU it a little bit more laid back. As I said we have our own room, we don't have to do the 3 minute scrub in, and we can have visitors. So for the first time my parents and Kirsten's family got to see Judah. There was no holding but they could look. Also Kirsten was able to nurse Judah again. It was really a blessing to have the family at least see Judah before the surgery.

Speaking of the surgery its starts at 8 am tomorrow. As it approaches we're getting more anxious. We're excited the day is here and he'll be on the road to recovery, but also a bit scared of the whole process. There are some other parents here with children that have gone through heart surgery. Some of them we know from the support group we're in. It was really good to talk to them about their experiences and hear how operations generally go.

As we go in to surgery please pray for Judah (obviously), us, and our family. Also pray for the all the parents that we have met both in the NICU and PICU as they continue to care for their children, some without all the support we have had.

The surgery will take about 5 hours. If all goes well we'll probably get to see him around 1 or 2. We'll try to update the blog a bit after that.

Matthew