We got to the ICU at 5:45 to see how the night had gone. Tracy was still there, we'd gotten no calls through the night and got a fast few hours of sleep.
Over night, things hadn't been smooth and it was probably best we weren't there. There's nothing we could have done but worry and get in the way. Cannon's heart had gone into "Junctional Rhythm". This means the signal to beat was hitting the bottom of the heart but not the top, so the atria weren't beating and his heartrate dropped into the 80s. During the surgery, 3 electrodes had been installed, a ground, one electrode for the atria and one for the ventricles. They hooked the pacemaker up to the electrodes when his heart went into the junctional rhythm and re-established a good beat. They set the pacemaker to 115 BPM so if his heartrate fell that far down, the pacemaker would kick in. As I write this, he's held a 130+ heartrate and the pacemaker hasn't re-engaged. In addition to the heartrate scare, his temp jumped up to 102.8 and his lactates had increased to 2.8. His kidneys weren't putting out like they wanted, but weren't too far off the scale. Atrial pressures were at 15 and 18, and they were using steroids to help control the blood pressure. The doctors were saying nothing was outside of the range of expectations, but Cannon has a ton of challenges to overcome.
Later in the morning, I came to see Cannon... he was pulling against the straps holding his hands down (to keep him from pulling sensors out). I grabbed his hand and put it down flat, rubbed his arm to help him relax... he looked right at me. He'd done this yesterday, but this time you could tell the lights were on, Cannon was home. He looked quite peaceful, I talked to him and told him to take it easy and squeeze my hand. I was one HAPPY DADDY when he did! Our son is there! The hard part was keeping my head on at this point, because anything can still happen, but what a great sign of hope. He dozed off right after that. He perodically opened his eyes and looked around slowly, not seeming to be in any pain or concerned about anything.
When in ICU, say YES to drugs!! Despite having his innards jumbled up and handled, he's feeling no pain.
As of 3:05, I haven't seen him in a couple hours but others have and his numbers are doing great. We've been roaming around, trying to keep Colton busy and getting lunch. We have my parents here, my sister, Mike, and friends from church are coming and going. I thought this would be the boring period, but we're busy. Between sending updates out in many directions and managing visitors, we don't have time for much introspection or pity-parties. Things are just slowing down enough to update the blog, then see Cannon again here shortly. I love their visiting policy: parents have absolute 24-hour access to their kids.
A huge thank you to everyone who has come to visit and is supporting us in prayer. Both are equally necessary and Tori and I are eternally grateful! Jesus praised those who fed him, visited him in prison, supported him in any way. His disciples said, "Lord, we never did that for you!" He said, "Whenever you do this for the least of my people, you do it for me." We fall into that category (the least of my people). So God will remember your service to Him as you support us. You will be blessed. In our gratitude to you, there's nothing we can do to top that.
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