Angels. . . . to me these are the people caring for and about children (and thier parents) in the hospitals, especially the nurses, doctors and surgeons. The look on their face says everything, it can be a punch in the gut or a sigh of relief. They are the pillars that help you stand when you can't stand on your own anymore. The nurses shoo you out to make sure you eat, take walks, are drinking enough and make sure you are sleeping, all while taking amazing care of and saving the lives of babies all day everyday.
Thankfully on Thursday I saw the smile of an angel when the surgeon came to talk to me. She said that "everything in the operation went as well as it possibly could have". Before the surgery, she laid out all the options for me: if things did not go well she could have ended up on ECMO, which is the heart lung bypass machine on the floor, would have been listed for transplant within 48 hours and if she had been waiting for a heart for more than a few weeks they would have put in a Berlin Heart, which is an artificial heart, until she could get a transplant. I was a complete wreck before the surgery, but after talking with the surgeon, knowing that they had a plan in case things did not go well, I felt much better. The operation Scarlett had is called a Bi-directioal Glenn. They took out the BT shunt and connected her Superior Vena Cava where the shunt used to be on her Pulmonary Artery. They were also going to patch her Pulmonary Artery where there was narrowing, but it was the shunt and as soon as the shunt was disconnected her artery was fine. YAY less healing necessary!
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| Scarlett 2 days after her Glenn 1/7/12 |
After they brought her back to her room and I was able to see her they let me know that they were prepping for ECMO and getting the bloodbank to hold the blood for her because the first few days were critical and if she took a turn for the worse she could still end up on it.
We are a few days out now and I am thankful that I can say she is doing well. The doctors are very happy with her results and when the docs are happy, Momma is happy!
She is absolutely beautiful!
ReplyDeleteHappy to hear some positive news. Thanks for keeping us updated. I am passing the update on to our little prayer army.
What a beautiful little girl. Thank you for the opportunity to follow your family's story. Take care of yourself so that you may be strong enough to take care of her (in other words listen to the wonderful nurses at CHoP!) You are not far from me, though I don't know you please let others know what we can do to help if needed.
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