James RIDGE King: Born October 31, 2020. His first surgery to place a stent in his PDA was done at only a day old. Hands down was one of the worst/best days of my life and here’s why….
After knowing what was to come since I was 24 weeks pregnant, living in fear and constant worry about what’s going to happen next for a long portion of my pregnancy, and then dealing with what’s to come after birth is nothing but pure mental torture!!! NOTHING can prepare you for the number of tears that will be shed!
Ridge was born with DORV(double outlet right ventricle), TGA(Transposition of the great arteries), Severe Pulmonary Stenosis, Complex Inlet VSD, and a Tortuous PDA. Which will require a series of Open Heart Surgeries to fix!
we go next Friday to children’s to be put to sleep to go into the cath lab so they can check on his stent and his stats to predict the timing of his first Open Heart Surgery!
The days leading up to any procedure or surgery are the best days because you fall in love harder than you could ever imagine! You protect your baby with everything you have while you can, like that first night and first surgery, I woke up aching from sleeping in hospital furniture, deal with recovery from a c section from the day before and then milk production….NOTHING PUT PURE PAIN; physically, mentally, and emotionally so much worse than what you’d expect! But I look at my baby that is going to be taken from me very soon and he will no longer be protected by me. His life will be in the hands of the surgeon and his team, alongside…I always tell myself, GOD! So I stay strong, the pain doesn’t exist when I remind myself that my son needs me!
That day of his first surgery they took him and I promised myself prior to that I would hold it together, who am I?! That wasn’t possible, I lost it…COMPLETELY! The longest 5 hours of my life!!!
Surgery was over, they told me he made it through, nothing else mattered. NOTHING! I felt like a ton of bricks had been lifted off my chest, I could breathe again! The worst was over and now my son was on the way to reviving on his own time until we have to be back to do it all over again! Well “again” is less than 9 days away!!
So in the days to come, I ask you all for prayers! Prayers that the cath procedure gives us some good news with his stent/stats and we can wait out this first open-heart surgery for a couple more months!! I ask for prayers for my son, myself, Jim, and our families!! I’m tired; mentally, physically, and emotionally!!! Through God, I will keep fighting right by my son through all this!! So here’s to our long heart journey ahead of us and the many times I’ll be asking you all for prayers!!!