Surgery

January 3, 2011

UPDATE:

Well, Madie is out of surgery and off of the heart-lung bypass machine and is being transferred to the ICU where she will begin her recovery. It seems that the surgery has gone well. This is the update that we got from the nurse, we have yet to talk with the surgeon to get a precise post-op summary. About another two hours and we can see her in ICU.

Well Madeline is in surgery now. We checked in at 6:00 AM this morning. We met with what seemed like 20 doctors and nurses but what was really 5 or 6. We got the entire explanation of everything that will/is happening. (This is a short synopsis) She will be put to sleep and then they will put in all of her IVs, breathing tube, and the ultrasound camera. When everything is ready they will begin surgery. The have tubes that they hook up to her veins and arteries into her heart. Those will hook up to the bypass machine where they will give her a blood transfusion. They will make the first incision now the middle of the chest then stop her heart to operate. The surgeon will then rebuild the center of her heart using a harvest from the sac outside the heart called the pericardium. They will soak it in solution to make it stronger and more usable and then sew it in. They will separate the tricuspid and mitrol valves and sew everything back up. When they release the clamp on her aorta the warm blood will restart her heart. Awesome I know. They will clean everything up then take her to nicu where we will get to join her. So far the anethesia has gone perfectly and the first incision is made. We are on our way.


Heading into surgery