Heart Surgery: TAKE TWO, DONE!!

On Monday, August 13th, William had his second open heart surgery.  This surgery was 10 weeks from the day of his first surgery.  And, it was completed in the nick of time for poor Will.  Read the posts from the week before surgery and you will see why.

William's surgery went better than expected.  Praise God!  His confluence was extremely narrowed with significant scar tissue causing the problem.  So, Dr. O'Brien had to clean out the scar tissue.  His confluence went from 3mm opening to 8-9mm opening.  And, the pressures in his heart dramatically decreased from 26 to 8.  And, the best news was that his pulmonary veins are small but not stenotic.  So, no surgery was needed to fix them.  All in all, his surgery was great.  No one really knows why he built up scar tissue so fast.  But, we are all praying that it doesn't happen EVER again.

Will remains on the ventilator.  His lungs had so much fluid build up that needs to clear.  Plus, he has had some other respiratory issues.  Due to the fluid build up, he suffered a hemorrhage in the right upper lobe causing THICK bloody secretions.  They are taking a lot of work to clear up.  Each day is a step in the right direction.  And, after chest closure, he suffered a small pneumothorax which improved almost immediately.  So, in other words, the weaning from the ventilator is a slow process.  William is directing his course.  And, that is perfectly okay with mommy and daddy.  Don't most infants direct the daily course in their houses?

His hospital stay is now been greater than 6 weeks--longer than even his first stay!  And, we still have weeks ahead of us here at Children's Mercy.  As stated before, WILL IS THE BOSS!!  And, we all just follow his direction.  His docs are reminded daily that he is in charge of his care not them!  Hopefully, within the next week, William can move out of the PICU and to a regular room.  So much more conducive for the rest of the Cunningham 5.  And, further healing will continue.  He will likely need physical and occupational therapy (he's never had to learn to eat or just be a baby), continued medications and breathing treatments, need to gain weight (hoping we don't develop another chylothorax), etc. 

Here are pics from the last week!

The day before surgery--so tired of the waiting for surgery.

2 days out of surgery--and, yes, his chest was left open.  It is open underneath the dressing.  They leave the chest open to decrease the pressure on the lungs and heart.

"I got my eyes on you, mom!" 

2 days after chest closure--tired baby.  What a puffy little boy!  All the fluid from surgery makes heart babies look so much bigger than they really are.  Sad to say, but this is a dramatic improvement from even 24 hours before.

Look at that puffy belly!  It will likely take weeks for all of the fluid to diurese.  But, we don't care about a puffy baby as long as we are making one more step in the right direction.  And, one day closer to no ventilator---and mommy and daddy's arms!