Surgery day

I have been here at the hospital literally every second of this day so far and it is 6:30pm right now.  I came late last night to hold you and be with you before your surgery today.  I was a little worried how I would do being with you all night...would I be too emotional, too sleep-deprived, too worried?  But it all turned out wonderful.  We had a good nurse and I was able to hold you for 6 hours...a new record!  You slept the whole time and I slept on and off.  You did such a good job keeping your heart rate and oxygen levels up so that I could keep on holding you.  There really were no issues and it felt so good to be close to you.  I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did!

When I put you down you were so wide-eyed and squirmy.  Getting all your energy out before your big day. 

Stretching out and moving all around

Lounging with your feet propped up on the snuggy!

  Daddy came in around 7:30 and we prayed for you and spent as much time with you as we could until the anesthesiologist came in to start their set-up for surgery.  Mommy wanted to get your heart checked again via ultrasound, but there was really no time.  Daddy prayed that if the valve had spontaneously closed that we would know by some delay in your surgery or some reason to stop it altogether.

We left your room since that is where they did your surgery.  We finally met the surgeon in the hall.  He was oriental and spoke very broken English.  He was hard to understand, but both Joe and I individually thought - well, he must be smart and good at what he does...just because of his accent.  LOL!!!  Isn't that an awful stereotype?!

A cardiothoracic nurse (friend of a friend) prayed with us.  He was attending your surgery.  It was comforting to know that there was at least one Christian in the room.  I was nervous, yet surprisingly calm at the same time.  Maybe it was all of the prayers for you being said this morning.  Maybe it was partly Mommy's tiredness and protection of my heart because I love you so and don't want to acknowledge the pain you would be going through this morning.

When it was over, a nurse and the surgeon both came to talk with us.  The surgeon said you did well and that your ductus was very large.  He said "it was about the size of your descending aorta.  Very Big.  Usually see a ductus half that size.  Very Rare." in his broken English.  Those words were pretty comforting to me though because of the fact that I had second-guessed the surgery just this morning.  It made me know that we made the best decision for you.  Your PDA was huge and you needed it fixed so you can move on and begin to heal. 

We pray now for your heart and circulatory system as it adjusts to its new, proper circulation...that your blood would profuse to all his organs so that they can get the oxygen they need to function...for your lungs, that fluid would start to get absorbed into the body and it would not be so difficult for his lungs to stay open. We have been warned that these changes may take a while to see and these next few days will be quite rocky for you as your body adjusts to the shock of functioning properly.  You will get worse before you get better...that's what they say.  I hope your lung problems are a product of the pda and not all about your lung disease.  We want you better!  Hoping this is a big step toward getting you home!

Sedated boy post-op...very ouchie