Surgery 6

Ethan update!!! They just called and they are through with the surgery part! He is off bypass and doing well. What a relief! They still have to place monitoring lines and a chest tube before they close and there is some small amounts of bleeding that have to be better controlled before he leaves the OR, but he is doing well! The light is at the end of the tunnel and we are catching a glimpse. Hopefully he will be out of the OR within the next 1 - 1 1/2 hours. Then we will have a dtailed conference with Dr. Fraser about what exactly he did and why and all that. Heart surgery carries a great amount of uncertainty of what you find when you actually get in there...

When I was typing above got called to post op meeting with Dr. Fraser...

Ethan was very hard to get started in surgery. It was almost noon before surgery was actually underway. The did an echocardiogram before surgery and Ethan was very stable throughout the whole procedure. He has two right atria that is common in Heterotaxy Syndrome. He has two superior vena cava...the one on the right is tiny and irrelevant at this stage and probably will remain so. The one on the left has been moved to connect with his pulmonary artery. So, we have a successful bidirectional Glenn Shunt. We have good heart function and good valve function. Ethan has two ventricles but they do not plan on correcting his AV canal because it is keeping him alive and he has to be looked at as a single ventricle heart...which is good because a ventricle repair in Dr. Fraser's words would be dangerous with the size he is. The other thing that was going to be fixed today was the pulmonary veins. His veins and pulmonary artery were twisting and pulling on each other which was what was causing his desaturations. Instead of cutting those veins and reworking them, he moved the pulmonary artery to release the pressure. So, we had two surgeries in one today which was only possible because of his size. Ethan came off bypass well and is on a ventalator. His saturations are in the high 80's and we are hoping they stay that way. His next surgery will hopefully be when he is 4 - 5.

Next update after we see him in about an hour. We are now CVICU parents...an exclusive club I hope none of you have to join. Thanks everyone for your support and prayers today...whatever you do...please don't stop! ;0)