Carolena's 1st Open Heart Surgery

Well, we are in Tampa at the Ronald McDonald House getting ready to get some sleep. Had kind of a long day as we had to get C up here for Pre-Op and sedated echo. The sedation was just a liquid she drank and made her drowsy so she would sleep. She did awesome for everything except the blood draw. She just does not want to give up any of her blood! She got poked about 5 times...even once in the groin artery and they barely got anything. Fortunately it was enough. If that did not work they were going to prick her heel and squeeze it out til they got enough. So painful for her...very glad we did not have to do that.

Of course she just charmed all the nurses. She was smiling and laughing and talking up a storm. She was telling anyone who would listen just what to do and how to do it. Such a silly girl.

Tomorrow we check into St. Joe's for her first open heart surgery. She will have her pulmonary veins worked on and repaired. We were really hoping that this vein repair surgery could be done at the same time as her Glenn but all the doctors feel having two separate surgeries is far less risky. So, we do this one now. Let her recover. Then do her Glenn in about 3 months.

Our day will be VERY LONG. We have to be at the hospital at 6am and she will be taken back around 7am. She will be sedated for the placement of all her lines including her ivs. Yea! At least she will not have to feel all the poking while they try and find access. She will have a transesophogial echo. Basically they stick a camera down her throat to get another look at her heart. Then she will be intubated (put on a ventillator) and be switched over to the heart/lung bypass. The bypass is because the surgeon will stop her heart so he can operate on it. Once the surgery is done another echo will be done and she will be (hopefully!) sent to recovery after being weaned off bypass. We have been told to not expect to see her until around 2pm and that she will still be intubated. Probably intubated for at least 24 hours after surgery. I hate that for her but she will be pretty much knocked out so her body can rest, recover and not be in any pain.

The average stay in the hospital post surgery is 10 days. She could be a total ROCK STAR (which we really hope) and have a much shorter stay,like 5 days. Or she could need some more time and we could be here awhile.

I know you have all had lots of requests for prayers but if you could say one (or 1000) for C tomorrow we would really appreciate it. We need her to keep being strong and a fighter. We also really need there to be no complications from surgery.