Hi everyone! Today we had the pre-op appointment for William. We met with the surgeon's nurse, anesthesiologist, had a chest X-ray, blood work and EKG done. It was a busy day!
The nurse clarified a lot about tomorrow's surgery. The doctor will open his chest (2-3 inch incision) and he will be put on bypass. The surgery will start at 8:00am and last about 6 hours which includes about an hour of anesthesia prep. We will be at the hospital at 6:30am to get him prepped. He is the first and only surgery for Dr. Mill tomorrow.
He will be fixing two areas of narrowing. One is the aortic valve and the other is at the top of the aortic curve. They will use donated tissue to fix these areas. The pulmonary artery also had blockage, but they believe he will grow out of that so there is no need to fix it. The nurse says it is not common for babies to have this much blockage, but it is something they have seen and have fixed.
One of the biggest concerns is his blood pressure. Since his heart is beating twice as hard (literally) as it should, they are worried that once they open the valve his body won't know what to do with a normal blood flow. Depending on his reaction will depend on his time in the PICU. They are thinking he will be there for about 3-4 days for any normal reaction. During this time he will be under sedation and have a feeding tube. He will have a lot of IVs and monitoring devices hooked up to him.
Today went as good as could be expected. Hopefully tomorrow will be the same! Thank you for the continued prayers. I'll keep you posted as much as I can!
"When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don't throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer."
-Corrie Ten Boom
Prayers, positive vibes, love, whatever I can send your way I'm pushing. I wish so badly to be able to bring you some comfort during this time. You are so strong, Sara. Your strength will carry your family through this. I know it. I love you and the whole fam dam.
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