Well today was our first big surgery day. Kate had surgery to repair a coarctation of the aorta (basically a narrowing of the artery that supplies blood to the entire body). Today’s surgery was to remove the narrowing to try and improve blood flow.
This morning they sedated Kate, put her on a breathing tube and put in several more lines to prepare for the surgery. Soon enough she was off to the OR for surgery. The surgery process seems kind of crazy to me. They went in through the side of her chest through a small incision, about 1.5″. Through this, they end up clamping the aorta on either side of the narrowing, snipping it out, and sewing her back up. No heart-lung bypass needed. All totaled it was about 3 hours from the time she left us to the time we saw her post surgery.
I’ll save you the suspense, the surgery went very well. There was another echo immediately after and were very pleased with the result. The initial hope from the doctors is that this MAY have taken care of the pulmonary hypertension!
The plan for the near term is to remove the breathing tube tomorrow and slowly wean her off the meds and other support apparatus they put in place and just monitor her to make sure she stays stable. Hopefully in a couple days we’ll get to hold her and start feeding her again!
Prayers for baby Kate to heal quickly and fully, and for you three to go home together soon. She’s beautiful and blessed to have you two for her parents.