Life with the Barfields: A Week Spent in the CICU

The night Anthony and I spent in the sleep pods (on Friday, April 5th) was probably the longest night of our lives. We were exhausted, emotionally drained, and left wondering how Josiah would do during the night. According to Anthony, the sleep pod we ended up getting that night was much bigger than the one that he and his sister stayed in the night Josiah was born. This pod had a twin bed as well as a pull out chair. To add a little humor to the story, I will tell you that Anthony and I both slept on the twin bed…hah! What a sight. For one, the bed had almost zero support. When Anthony and I both got in we immediately rolled to the middle (or should I say the 1 inch that separated us). I’m sure it would have been a sight to see, and it did kind of give us a little laugh for a split second. Anyhow, we spent the entire night hoping and praying we did not hear either of our phones ring. Any family that has had a child spend any time in the CI, knows how anxious you get any time your phone rings and it's from a “404-785-….” number. A phone call usually does not mean good news. Thankfully we did not receive any calls that night.
The next morning, I called to check on Josiah and to see if rounds had started. Since it was Saturday, rounds didn’t get started until later, so Anthony and I headed down to the cafeteria to grab some breakfast. As soon as we were allowed back, Anthony and I went to go visit our little man.

Mr. Josiah with his monkey

Looking back at our stay in the CICU when Josiah was first born, I have to say it was actually a little easier to see him intubated, sedated, etc. I’ll tell you why…the first time we were there, I didn’t really “know” Josiah. I didn’t know what he really liked or didn’t like, the way he liked to be held in order to calm him down, or how to bounce him when he had gas…I didn’t know any of those little things. This time, I knew every one and couldn’t do any of them in order to comfort him. He was much more active and liked to grab things, and therefore he had to have little wrist restraints put on so he didn’t try to yank out his breathing tube. Talk about heart wrenching…Thankfully he was kept pretty sleepy and as long as I was beside his bed then I could take them off.

Josiah ended up being intubated for a total of about 3 days. It wasn’t until the 8th, that Josiah was extubated. I remember mom and I leaving for lunch that Monday (Josiah had been awake a good bit of the time and was HATING the breathing tube) and coming back to Breanna (his nurse) and Susie (his respiratory therapist) standing next to each other and smiling like they were up to something. It took me a couple of seconds until I realized that Susie had pulled his tube! What a great feeling =) Not only did I know Josiah had to be feeling much better, but it also meant I could hold my little guy!

Before getting extubated..

…and after!

Over the next several days there was much discussion as to why the doctors thought Josiah’s heart had started to “pooped-out” on him and what the road ahead might look like. There was talk about potentially going to the cath lab to rule out a possible reason for decreased heart function, talk about potentially needing and being listed on the heart transplant list, the possibility of performing the Glenn early, and talk about possibly going home if Josiah could bounce back in order to grow a little bigger. Although, for the time being all we could really do was play a the waiting game to see how Josiah would do.

Unfortunately I was not as good about keeping up with what happened every single day like I was during out first stay, but I did take pictures and I do know that we ended up staying in the CICU for a week. After being unexpectedly admitted into the CICU on April 5th, Josiah was moved to the Stepdown Unit on April 14th. Most of the time this move means you are a step closer to being able to go home, and of course that’s what we were thinking…boy how things change…