High as a kite

The night before Molly's surgery, we met with the surgeon Dr Gangemi.  told him that Miss Molly just needed a break this time and to see what he could do to make it happen. When he came to talk to us after the surgery, he said, "Well, I think she got the break you were talking about." And you could just tell how happy they were (Dr G and Dr McDaniel the EP).

We waited until about 12:15pm until they called us to pre-op. I was nervous that Molly was going to be a mess with not being able to eat, but she was a super trooper. It helped that she has a new favorite person in her life, which is Minerva, the cat that Rebecca knit for her. She sees it and lights up. Molly's first friend. So Minerva got her through it all. Then she actually fell asleep in pre-op (you know a baby is used to hospitals when...). We got her in her little gown and they actually took her still droopy from sleep.

They decided to not mess around, knowing Molly's history of complicating matters. So she got a central line (if you recall, that's the thing that dislodged after 2 weeks last time) in her upper left chest area. This was mainly for backup in case she needed to get blood right away. Fortunately they didn't need it. BUT it was this (as usual) that was the biggest complication of the day. I swear, the girl hates her lines. So they tried to get one in her neck at first, but that failed because her veins were too small. The second one took, but in the end it took just as long to get that in that it did the entire actual surgery!

Surgery was smooth. They did a thorachotomy to get to her left ventricle. This is a side incision and turns out is much more painful in terms of recovery. But he was able to expose the ventricle well, put on the leads and they tested great from the get-go. He then made the other incision and took out her old box. Because the new box is bigger he had to make more of a pocket for it to sit, but he said it went fine. Also, when they started the bi-ventricular pacing, they said her blood pressure shot up about 20 points to a much more normal range. Molly's blood pressure had been so low that nurses couldn't get it with a cuff anymore. They said they've never seen such an automatic reaction before like that and it just reaffirmed how much she needed this surgery. The higher blood pressure is an indication that the heart is pumping the blood more efficiently. Hopefully it stays this way long term and is an indication for more improvement to follow. But that's, like, step 2e and we're still at 1a. Well, maybe 1b. Well I guess if you count her other hospitalizations since birth, we're probably at 18b, but I digress.

Then comes the big question...

Stiches or wound vac...and the answer is...

STITCHES! Dr. G said he felt like the muscle closed well with no tension or stress and that he thinks she's heal just fine. Since he pretty much called her first wound dehissing, we'll take him at his word for this better news. After surgery they brought Molly up to the PICU where they have cardiac post-op nurses who know all the details about what she'll need.

They pulled her breathing tube out early this morning around 2am so she's breathing on her own. Today they are also supposed to remove the central line, art line, chest tube and foley. Which means she'll only have one IV line left (in her head, course. might as well take advantage of the fact that her hair hasn't grown back yet)! Woo! We're hoping all goes to plan. We're waiting now for rounds so we can see when she can start eating again. She has already started eating her hands, so we're sure she's starving. Otherwise she is in a lot of pain, which is to be expected but still sad to watch. She'll wake up screaming. Fortunately the nurses are quick with the fentanil (a strong pain narcotic that makes her quite loopy) and she goes right back to sleep. If it were up to us, we would want her to sleep for the next week and wake up with much less pain. It will definitely be a long recovery for her, but we're thankful we get to be on that road!

They're talking that if she continues to improve as she is, we'll be out of here in a few days. Keep your fingers crossed for her. Thanks for all the love and wishes. It means so much!