Visiting in the CICU 6:30pm April 5th

We were getting a little worried because they weren't calling us to let us know that Owen was ready to get visitors, so at 5pm, I ran down to the cardiac unit to ask if Owen was ready.  He was ready, so we all went down to see him.  His nurses said that he is doing really well.  His heart is beating strong and steady and all of his oxygen saturation levels are looking good as well.  They weren't able to close up his chest due to swelling which isn't a surprise, so they have a silicone patch over the incision and you can actually see he heart beating (if you aren't squeamish).  He has two tubes coming out of his chest to drain excess fluids and bring down the swelling as well as two IV lines going directly to his heart in case they need to get drugs right to his heart.  He also has two pacing wires running to his heart which they have had no need to use so far but they are there just in case he is having heart rhythm problems.  Owen still has the pick line and umbilical IV lines in and they put one back into his hand, the other hand than the one that slipped out this morning.  There are a lot of different pumps for drugs on his IV tree, but that is normal and they aren't all running at the same time.  He is on a ventilator which is going in through his nose and they also have a NG tube running in through his nose which they are currently using to draw out old blood.  He still has the catheter going into his bladder. He still also has four oxygen sensors monitoring the levels of oxygen in his blood one on his hand, one on his foot, one on his forehead, and one on his kidneys, and they all are at good levels.  Right now he is heavily sedated and paralyzed so that he can't move and is always calm.  They don't want him moving and messing anything up.

CAUTION:  We took pictures of Owen in the CICU and in some of the pictures you can see his open chest, so for those of you who are squeamish I recommend not scrolling all of the way down to the bottom of the post.  I will post the pictures where you can see his chest last.

 This is Owen monitor.  It is displaying his EKG, his heart rate, his blood pressure, pressures in his heart, blood oxygen levels, and body temperature.

 This is Owen's ventilator which at the moment is actually breathing for him.

 This is Owen's IV tree.  Each of these can pump a different medication into Owen, but not all of them are being used at the moment.

 Here is Owen in his little bed with all of the different wires and tubes and IV lines coming out of him.

Here is a closer picture of Owen where you can actually see the whole in his chest.