Riley Day 7 Surgery: Post

WOW...13 hours of waiting room time! Not the ideal Friday at all. The good news is our good friend Anne Mundrick lives nearby and was able to bring us lunch, pick up some Tyler photos and distract us for the afternoon. She and Keith even brought us chocolate ice cream when the day turned much longer than expected. We appreciated their support so much.

We got 90 minute updates and at different stages of the procedure. The switch was a success and we were going to be able to see him at 5pm, but a little after 5pm the surgeon came to us to let us know that there was a complication and they had to do another surgery right then. The last 3 hours were the longest of the day. The second surgery was to remove some trapped fluid behind Tyler's heart that was not draining because of a clot. After this surgery, the doctors were not able to close up his chest bone because they did not want to stress his heart since there was so much swelling. The chest bone is left open about 50% of the time with this surgery, so it is not uncommon, but it is hard to hear because this adds more time to the recovery process. (I am learning way more about the anatomy than I really wanted to learn...at least this way.) 

We were able to see him at 9pm and he had 14 different iv medications (yikes). He is very puffy and green. The green is the antibacterial wash they put on his skin before the surgery. Julie was not prepared to see a green baby with blood coming out of his tubes so this was difficult. The first thing that we noticed on the monitors was his blood oxygen levels that had been reading between 60 and 80 were now reading 91-93! That was our first indication that the switch was doing what it was supposed to do. The small line between the Aorta and the Pulmonary Vessel was closed and the medication to keep the hole open was stoped. Every thing is working the way it should! He is resting under anesthesia and will remain this way until a few days after the next surgery sometime this week. With all that he is going through it is a good thing he won't remember any of this.

In a few days we should see his swelling go down and that will allow the chest to be closed back up in a much shorter operation. After this, we are on the road to recovery and the medication and sedation can start to be reduced. One day at a time. Thank you all again for all the support and prayers.

Early in the waiting process

"Christmas Tree" of IV's