The Progress Continues

Brett is still doing well. They took out the pace maker wires this morning, cut back on the number of medications he is receiving and are working to get him off the vent. He is trying to move around, but they currently have him tied to the bed. Hard to watch, but better than having him pull out one of his tubes.

A few minutes ago, he opened his eyes when I spoke to him. According to the nurse, this was the first time they've been open.

Once he is awake and breathing on his own, they will remove the vent. A few hours later we should be able to hold our little boy! They were hoping we would get to that point tonight, but we are thinking it will be tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed!

Time to Rest

Everything went great (as great as things can go when you're having heart surgery) yesterday. Cody and I were finally able to see Brett around 12:30. We knew he would be full of tubes, but I don't think you can ever really be prepared for what you are going to see. However, it was nice to see that Ernie is still a vital part in Brett's care.

The strangest part was that Brett did not repond to our touches or words. Where is the little boy who is constantly smiling and "talking" to you? I'm sure he will be quick to return and right now he needs his rest.

Cody and I were able to get a room at the Ronald McDonald Family Room. Not real comfy, but I'm sure it was better than sleeping in the waiting room. Cody may not agree with that statement as he volunteered to take the mat on the bedroom floor and let me have the bed all to myself. What a guy!

We greatly appreciate all of the prayers and goodies we've received from everyone over the last few days. It's great reading everyone's comments. Cody and I have enough snacks to feed an army and will have a freezer stocked with food when we return home! I think that we have the best friends and family in the world!

Ready, Set, Go!

Brett was such a big guy this morning. Once again, he was given a pretty sweet hospital gown to wear. We were fitted with matching hospital bracelets (Ernie even got one) and met Brett's nurses.
Brett and Ernie were taken from us at 8:15 this morning. I'm glad that Brett was able to take his best buddy with him. Handing him to the nurse was probably the hardest thing I've ever hard to do. I guess that's just part of being a parent.

The surgery went faster than expected. Once he was open, the surgeon decided that some of the problems originally identified weren't as major as anticipated. Therefore, they only ended up closing the two holes in Brett's heart. They assure us that they other issues will not affect Brett's blood flow going forward.

Cody and I are patiently waiting to see Brett. They are working on closing, which should take another hour, and will then move Brett to the PICU. Once in the PICU, we will have to wait another 45 minutes before we are actually able to see him.

Thank you for all of your prayers this morning!

It's Not a Dress, it's a Hospital Gown!

We headed to CMH this morning for Brett's preadmission testing. He had the normal height, weight and fever check. We expected that he would have an x-ray and blood draw, but we didn't expect the blood draw would be from his head! Brett did very well and only shed a few tears. Oddly enough, he only cried when the nurse actually looked at him.

The best part of the entire morning was the hospital gown that Brett got to wear. Who knew hospital gowns came in such small sizes?



We ask for everyone's continued prayers. We will head to CMH tomorrow morning and Brett is scheduled for surgery at 7:00. We hope to keep everyone informed by updating the blog on a regular basis.

Happy Thanksgiving

The Hanavan Home Lockdown officially started Monday. Brett's last day at Ms. Laura's was last Friday and his last day of individual therapy was Monday. He will not be making any unnecessary trips into the outside world and we have limited visitors until Brett has made a full recovery.

Normally we would be unable to do this, but we are very lucky to have extra help. Both Cody's and my parents have volunteered to watch Brett for the time being, so Cody and I can save our time off until the actual surgery. It took a little bit of arm twisting, but we were able to convince them to come visit :). It's a win-win for everyone. Brett gets to hang out with his grandparents and Cody and I are able to get caught up on things around the house (i.e. sleep).

The good news is we were able to celebrate Thanksgiving before the lockdown started. My family came to visit last Saturday and we enjoyed lots of food. Brett always loves seeing his great-grandma Gi Gi. I think it's because she spoils him rotten (see picture below).

In other news, we have found that Brett is very ticklish...

Jimmy Meyers

Brett was born on a pretty cool day. His birthday is 5/5/10. Some think it is special because it is Cinco De Mayo, others because 5+5=10. These are both pretty neat, but what really makes the day Brett was born extra special is this: the day Brett was brought to earth is the same day (5/5) his cousin Jimmy entered heaven. I never met Jimmy, as he was taken away from Cody's family on 5/5/96, one month before his high school graduation by a drunk driver.

Brett is more than 6 months old, so you may wonder why I am just now posting about this. Today, Brett met his great uncle, Jimmy's dad, Dan. You could see the pride in Dan's eyes as he held Brett for the first time.
As Brett gets older, he will get to travel to Texas to spend time with his uncle and we will be able to tell him stories about his cousin Jimmy. Thanks for visiting Dan, we were all excited to see you.

Daylight Savings

With the additional hour we had today, Brett got a lot accomplished. First off, he became a master at holding his own bottle. This is a good thing as the Down syndrome clinic suggested that he would need to start to learn to drink from a cup in the next few months. Are they crazy?

We also heard dad making quite the ruckus in the kitchen. We went to check it out and saw he was installing a new disposal in the sink.

Brett was very curious and wanted to help. Since he isn't yet strong enough to hold a wrench, Cody explained the process to him and said, "I expect you to be able to do this next time."