February 12, 2024

Just holding steady today. Of course he had some weight loss. The weight gain yesterday was so large it wasn’t believable, so I wasn’t surprised to see the decrease today. However, we’re doing our best to not cause any disturbances with him before his surgery.

I had forgotten to mention yesterday that if David is awake, we are no longer allowed to offer him the bottle. We’re just going to try to keep his bottle experiences positive and see how he is post surgery. We can try to get him into position while he’s being fed but that’s about it. We were given a pacifier with a syringe we could try giving him milk through when he eats as well, but David knows that is not his bear and doesn’t like it.

Child family life brought a care package for David from the University of Minnesota football players today. There was an adorable puppy in it which I hope he enjoys. 

Otherwise, we’re just doing our best to prepare our minds for surgery. I do not want Eli or Anna to see him post-surgery. They will likely be kept away for several days (this is going to break Anna’s heart). We’re still waiting to hear from the surgeon himself with all the details but it seems very likely that David will go to the CVICU with his breathing tube still in and his chest still open. I’m not sure if there will be other things that will be hard to witness, but at least David is young and won’t remember this. Surgery will take most of the day. We’ll be anxiously awaiting updates, but it looks like the hospital has some fun things planned that day that may help pass the time. The Vikings will have some players here around lunch with some cocoa and donuts, and there’s some sort of meal in the evening. Before we knew that surgery had been moved up last week, Adam joked that we would need to stay inpatient because the Vikings were coming. That’s about all for today – Eli has swimming lessons tonight so the kids won’t be by to see David today. Hopefully tomorrow they can see him a final time before his surgery.