Surgery

Yesterday was our pre-op visit at Children's Los Angeles. We checked in at 10:00 am and Ethan had a complete physical and blood draw. He was quite the trooper considering we were there for almost four hours! The phlebotomist at CHLA was fantastic and was able to get his vein on the first try! This is unheard of for us. Ethan is usually a very difficult draw and it is a very traumatic event both for him and us (Mike and I) when he has labs done. We also met with our surgeon, Dr. Kallin, to sign consent forms and further discuss the operation for the following day.

Dr. Kallin indicated that he was 90% sure it was going to go the Glenn (single ventricle) route. I told him that I liked the numbers he gave me when we had our phone conversation two weeks prior (75% Glenn 25% full heart repair). I told him that we'd been feeding Ethan blue berries and praying and I was sure his valve would measure at 9mm like he wanted to see. He looked at me like I was crazy and again reminded me that he had shown Ethan's echo to the finest cardiologists in L.A. And they are seeing the valve at 6.5 mm but that he would place a dialator in the valve and if measured at 9 he would do the whole heart repair.

We met with my dad for dinner and a walk after in Glendale and I told my Dad that it looked like it would be going the single ventricle route although I wasn't giving up hope I had come to terms with the surgeons decision. My dad asked what the valve needed to be at for the full heart repair. I told him nine and he said okay that's what we will pray for then.

Today we checked in for surgery at 6:00am. They gave Ethan some "happy juice" and he was so adorable when it kicked in. He was staring at me and smiling with those big brown eyes of his that I have fallen in love with. They took him back for surgery at 7:00 am and the waiting game began.

At about 2:30 a nurse came in and said they were warming him up and surgery was over. She said Ethan was getting his Glenn today, right? I said ," I think so." She indicated that Dr Kallin should be out shortly to speak with us. All of the sudden time began to stand still it seemed like we were waiting forever and then nothing.

At about 3:30 Mike went to talk to the nurse again. She said that they had to go back in and do additional repairs to Ethan's arch and didn't know how much longer it would be. At 4:00 Dr. Kallin came into the waiting room. He looked at me and told me that I got my wish and Ethan got a full heart repair!!

He said that the valve measured at exactly nine mm and he felt confident in doing the full repair! He even corrected Ethan's scimitar which he wasn't even going to attempt till Ethan was two or three!! He said that the surgery did have a few issues, which is why it took so long, and that Ethan was on bypass a little longer than he likes but that he fixed everything!! More specifically a very hard to get to and large ventricle septal defect (VSD), coarctation of the aorta, scimitar, pulmonary band removal and reconstruction and removal of the shunt in his PDA. (Well actually half of the shunt is still in there. It had scare tissue grown around it and eventually it will need to be corrected but it should be fixed through a Cath lab and not another open heart surgery.) I am still shocked and amazed!

We were able to see Ethan at 6:00. His coloring was good and his blood gases were better than expected. Unfortunately he has a temperature of 102 and some arrhythmia. They have placed a pacemaker and it has kicked in a few times already. Please continue to pray for a speedy recovery. The next 48 hours are so crucial. Your prayers mean so much to us and they are working!!!