Surgery Update 15

9:30 am - Big news! They removed Emma's main chest tube! It was the big one near the heart. It was probably the most painful tube left as well as a risk for infection, so this is great news. I didn't watch because I didn't want to see a tube that thick come out. It was probably the size of a pea.

Unfortunately, we lost our wonderful, closed-in quiet room. We are now in a room with just curtains across from a hallway and desk on the other side of the hall. Yuck! Hopefully we will get to move to a regular ward room soon.

Emma also had a sedated echocardiogram at about 10 am so we are waiting to hear how that looks. They are checking the heart function to see how it is now that she is off all the heart medicines. I am anxious to hear what the doctors have to say. If it looks good I have a feeling this will be out last night in the intensive care unit.

We love our surgeon, Dr. Kaza; he is very attentive and comes by several times a day. Then he calls about three times a night to check on her. He has been watching closely because it is pretty rare to put a kido on the heart/lung bypass machine three times in one surgery. That alone might make her recovery take a bit longer.

Emma is pretty sedated now, but she was fussy before so we will see how she feels with the sedation from the echo wears off. I also want to mention our sweet little Triston, he is at Grandpa and Grandma's while we are in the hospital, and we miss him and appreciate his sacrifices for his little sister. He is the best big brother ever! Thanks for your continued prayers.


...The cardiologist just came from reading the echocardiogram and everything looked really good. Emma has a couple of smaller holes around her VSD patch (the patch between the right and left ventricle, and a small hole right at the patch. They didn't know about those holes, but even if they had they wouldn't have tried to repair them. They are of no consequence in the long-term. They may close on their own or they may not. But the overall heart function is great and the actual repairs made in surgery are good. This means she stays off heart meds continues to heal.

There are now rumblings that she will be out of the PICU and into a regular room by this afternoon! She just needs to stop retaining fluids. Fingers crossed!