SURGERY

Sam right after surgery. The picture is yellow because he had warming lights on him to help keep his body temperature even.

I don't think I slept at all the night before his surgery. I was so nervous, but yet anxious to get it overwith. His surgery was scheduled to start at around 7:00 a.m.. We arrived at the hospital at 6:20 and spent our time praying and telling Sam how much we loved him. At 7:10 they came and wheeled him out of the NICU, down the hall and through the doors to surgery. And just like that he was gone from our sight....it was a horrible feeling watching him disappear knowing that things may not go well. I was as prepared as I could be for a long day and was trusting God that he would take care of our son no matter what happened. Dr Rebeyka was the surgeon who was to operate on Sam. He was a gift from God to us. His ability to operate on such tiny little hearts and have such amazing results quite simply a miracle. I knew God was watching out for Sam and the fact that Sam had such a world reknowned cardiologist as his doctor was a huge blessing to us. The staff at the Stollery kept telling us that Sam couldn't be in better hands.....we knew he was and God had placed Sam in Dr Rebeyka's care for a reason.

The hours passed slowly.....I started to look for Dr Rebeyka at around 11:00 a.m. I was so worried and I kept trying to focus on positive things, but it was very hard. It seemed like an eternity and then finally at around 12:30 Dr Rebeyka came down the hall and sat down next to us. His first words were...it went well!! That is really all I heard......then he went on to explain that there were no surprises and he was able to close his chest. I was very thankful for this as often, because the heart is so swollen the chest can't be closed for a few days. Dr Rebeyeka did caution us that the next 48 hours were crucial to Sam's recovery. There were lots of post operation complications that could happen. Right then I wasn't focused on that.....I was just so thankful that Sam had survived surgery and things looked promising. My mom had arrived and I went to go and get her in t hospital lobby. I told her Sam had made it through surgery and that we were able to go and see him in about 30 minutes in recovery. I walked through the doors of the PICU and saw Sam for the first time......there were more tubes then baby, but he was alive and he had survived open-heart surgery. We sat with him for awhile and then went home to take a break at around 4:00 p.m. We went back up to the hospital to see Sam in the evening and his doctors were making their rounds. We spoke with them and they told us that he was doing very well. I went home that night and slept much better knowing that Sam was doing great.

It was September 1, 2000.....Sam was 8 days old when he had open-heart surgery. He was a fighter and his strength and will to survive came from God. As I laid my head down to sleep that night I felt confident and my faith had grown. Little did I know the rollercoaster ride that still was before me.......in the days to come my faith would be tested beyond anything I had ever experienced before.......but right then at that moment everything was right with the world....and I slept......