The Unexpected Journey - Open-Heart Surgery
It was half past two in the morning. Driving through a slushy storm, we arrived at Logan Airport. It was dark with people sparsely spread out around the check-in area, no doubt eagerly awaiting their flights. We arrived three hours early to the airport to catch our flight to the Philippines, a trip that has been in the making since Ishtar and I first met years ago. I didn’t actually know that the check in area of Logan Airport actually closed. The clock continued to tick as we were told the check in area would open shortly after three in the morning. Every minute past three felt like an eternity. Finally the check-in hosts showed up and began to usher folks into an orderly line. It was a good thing we arrived early and able to get close to the front of the line. I could just hear the tick-tock in my head as the three working agents meticulously helped each customer, much to my angst. As I looked behind me, I couldn’t help but think about the horde of what looked like hundreds of other passengers and how long they might have to wait to be checked in. With a little difficulty checking in our bags due to the bag tagging machine malfunctioning for our agent, having our bags inspected by TSA, we finally reached our gate, as boarding had already begun. But we made it. Over thirty hours later, we made it to the Philippines and the smile on Ishtar’s face as we landed, everything we had been through to get to this point, it was worth it. After DJ woke us up at three in the morning for the second day in a row, with roosters doing their best cock-a-doodle-doo in the farm next to the house we are staying in, I can’t help but reflect how I got here.
The last time I felt this tired with lack of sleep was almost 20 months ago to the date, when DJ was born. Previously, I wrote a blog called Medical Baby - DJ’s First Couple of Months. I wrote about DJ’s first two and a half months of life, after his stint in the NICU. DJ did his best feeding and was developing right on schedule all the expected baby milestones, every one leading to a cheering ovation like that of winning a championship. He was a very determined little dude. Things suddenly changed when seemingly out of nowhere, we are asked to be admitted to the hospital again.
Ever since the start of the pandemic and the lock down in Massachusetts in March of 2020, I was fortunate enough to work remotely. In the 2 weeks leading up to DJ being admitted to the hospital again, I had returned to my remote work, knowing that I would need to save some FMLA time for post surgery if it were to come to that. Then suddenly, on September 28th, 2021, we were being asked to go to Boston Children’s Hospital for inpatient care. I made all the necessary arrangements to be away from work again and we packed our things for what we thought could be a longer hospital stay.
As we were admitted to the hospital, we were given a small room and prepped for the evening. A nurse helped put in DJ’s new NG tube. And just like that, we lost control of the rhythm we were able to build in our time at home. We were given a strict hospital feeding schedule again, feeding at specific intervals and specific amounts per interval. We were to offer DJ the bottle by mouth and use the NG tube to put the remaining amount that he was unable to finish through the NG tube. The room we were given was small however and I would need to leave Ishtar and DJ in the hospital much to my dismay.
DJ went from eating very well by mouth to being reliant on the tube in a matter of a couple of days. While we were in the hospital, they were able to pull in DJ’s open-heart surgery to October 1st. We knew DJ was struggling to gain weight despite showing that he was eating better in the week leading up to surgery, but we didn’t expect everything to escalate so quickly especially since his surgery was originally scheduled for October 15th. Our newborn baby boy was going to have open-heart surgery to repair his VSD.
While I was nervous about the surgery, I was hopeful as the doctors basically set an expectation that DJ would do a complete 180 post surgery. Little did I know, surgery was the easiest part of the process. Many months after the surgery, DJ was still absolutely reliant on the NG tube, but that is a story for another blog. Through some untapped perseverance, many long nights, tears and meltdowns, we have come a long way as a family to the point where we live a mostly normal life now. The trials and tribulations of life make all the wonderful and tender moments ever more special. It is not the trials and tribulations, but the wonderful and tender moments that should define who we are. You are what you value. And this could be not be more true than the feelings I have as I write this now.
