Surgery Tomorrow afternoon

Its been a big day for us. Josh and I attended rounds this morning and heard that the cardiac team had decided to go ahead with the coarc repair. We have since had a long consult with the surgeon and the surgery is scheduled for noonish tomorrow.

Apparently, the decision to take this approach rather than the more extreme Norwood procedure was controversial among the team. The surgeon confessed he was the most sceptical and while he was hopeful he had seen patients "do poorly" after a biventricular repair with small left-side dimensions like Wrens. However, there is hope.

The surgery will begin around noon and should be done within a couple of hours. In this case, the surgery itself is relatively straightforward. The Surgeon will do a thoracotamy and tie off the PDA. He will then disect the aorta distal to the PDA and insert a gortex patch shaped like an eye. This will enlarge the aorta and allow it to be repaired without sectioning. That is important in the case that Wren goes into some form of heart failure following the surgery (ie if the narrow aortal valve or some left side structure is too small to cope despite the blockage being removed). In that case an "emergency" norwood will be performed. I won't go into that.

Unfortunately, the outcome will not be clear for some hours, days or even weeks. They will be monitoring him closely to look for things like lactate levels and urine output as well as the usual cardiac sats, stats etc.

I am exhausted, so is Josh. We have been running back and forward all day. Even so we have managed to spend a long time with Wren today and I hope to take Mum down this evening if we ever get bedtime done.

Frost will be visiting Ariadne for part of tomorrow while I plan to remain at the hospital most of the day (and perhaps night). I think Mum may need some relief so I may be calling some of you who have offered to help with Frost (who has become a bit frustrated with all our absences but is thrilled to be offered so many playdates even if I haven't managed to implement many yet!) Thanks for all the support - I feel terrible not to have returned calls and emails but I can't even find my own cellphone let alone remember who I have and haven't spoken with. Please bear with us. I shall continue to post updates here... during and after surgery.

Shannon