2nd Surgery

So Vance's second surgery went well.  He ended up having the norwood, glenn and coronary surgery all at one time.  That is a lot of surgery for a little body. No hiccups in the OR like last time.  They really feel the proximity of his left coronary to the pulmonary caused that when the band was placed by compressing it. His coronary was intramural (running through the heart wall) as they had suspected but it was not very deep or very long so removing it was not as complex as Dr. Bradley anticipated. Thank God for that one. Everyone is pleased with his post-op progress.  Of course we want to see the vent off asap, but we're going to wean slowly today and see how he does.  We've got him down to 20 on the vent currently.  Checking blood gasses hourly.  His BP was a bit of a concern and I noticed that they put him on pace this morning, so I guess they are having to make up for the fact that they are sedating him a bit heavier because of all his movement.  He wants to wake up now!  He's shaking his head no which is pulling at the vent and could potentially cause inflammation making it harder to breath so thus the drugs.  Such a fine line we walk.  Every little thing affecting the other. I couldn't be happier though.  I am so proud of my boy.  What a warrior in deed!!  More updates throughout the next few days. Thank you for the prayers and God bless all of you following Vance. The support helps so much. We are God's hands and I felt his touch through all of the messages we've received from all of you.

packing and getting ready

I have no idea where to start packing but at least we aren't far from home like many others.  today and tomorrow are going to be hard.  I am so anxious and on edge.  It's so hard to balance these emotions.  I want to be happy for Vance.  He's getting to move closer to having a normal life.  Yet there is this fear of losing him. It's not an overwhelming one which is encouraging. At least I don't feel like that at the moment.  I know what we're up against and that is probably the biggest hurdle.  Sometimes I wish I didn't know so much about this stuff and could sit in oblivion. He looks so cute this morning, sitting up in bed (albeit propped by pillows).  He's grown so much and become so precious to this family. Kaytlyn and I bathed him together last night.  He is really starting to enjoy the bath and it was a treat for both of us to watch how excited he got.  I couldn't imagine a day without him.  His little smile, his non-stop leg kicks and loud mouth.  My monkey is something special! I'm just going to count my blessings while pack some clothes. Back at it tomorrow.

The glenn has been scheduled

After waiting two weeks after the CT scan, we still didn't have a surgical date. His o2 sats kept decreasing and he was starting to sweat a lot.  It was obvious that normal play that was fine before was starting to cause fatigue.  All in all it didn't take much to know he was ready for the surgery, so Dr. Havachek said they would "push" Bradley's office into giving us a date.  Well, the very next day they called with the date.  Next friday, July the 16th which also happens to be Vu's birthday, so we'll be expecting to be celebrating a very big day.

CT scan results

So the scan went well.  Dr. Havachek said he has some narrowing in the coronary that will also have to be repaired along with the additional arch work to the aorta. So not just the glenn but two other things as well.  This is gonna be a rough ride.  But at least we're ready and waiting for the next surgical date.  Everything else is done and ready. Holding our breath until then.

preparing for the next step

His PA bands are getting too small now.  His cath looked good, but D. Bradley wants to make sure there are no surprises like there were during the last surgery, so he and  dr Zyblewski reviewed the cath angogram results again.  This time they suspect that Vance's coronary arteries may not follow the normal path.  They think it's possible the arteries run through the heart wall not on the outside as usual.  So we have to have a CT scan before Dr. Bradley will consider surgery.  The Dr. that does the scans is out of town so we won't be able to get to it for another week.