Day 10 - 2:27 pm - The day of Closing

I woke up this morning and quickly got ready to get to the hospital.  Closing of the chest was scheduled for 9:30 am and I didn't want to miss it!!  We don't live far from the hospital but during rush hour it can take about an hour to an hour and a half.  When there's no traffic at all it can take as little as 25 to 30 minutes.  2 days ago when it rained in the morning it took almost 2 hours to get here and I left home mid-morning!

The thought that Trey was going to be in one piece again was thrilling!  I really think I was just as excited this morning as I was the day he was born.  The suspense of the surgery was killing me!  While you could see that T's swelling had gone down a lot, there was always the possibility he wouldn't tolerate even the small amount of swelling that was still there.

I made it to the hospital at 9:30 exactly and was very happy to find that when I got upstairs the team wasn't ready yet - so I wasn't late. His nurse, Lynn, was in the process of getting his room and Trey ready for the procedure, which was done in his room.

Dr. Collazo and his team came to the room to close him up.  There were a lot less people in the room this time since the ECMO team wasn't in the room as well.  There were also a lot less nurses in the room.  This time they closed the curtain to the room, as opposed to last time when it was just open to the unit.  They allowed me to sit in the hallway and I watched his vitals through a slit in the curtain for most of the time.

Dr. Callahan came over to check up on him and informed me that he was closed and they were just finishing up suturing the skin.  Yay!  They explained that the next day or so they will probably have to tweak some things and medications to keep him stable so he will be watched very closely but things looked good at this time.  For example, as I'm writing this his blood pressure is a bit on the lower side and the doctors/nurses are here tweaking his medicines to get it a bit higher.

I also just had the most interesting conversation with Chelly, the other cardiac physician assistant, about the surgery that Trey has gone through.  The actual surgery was WAY more complicated than I had even realized.  By looking at the pictures, it did seem like an easy fix, but I knew that there were things in the way that the surgeons had to move to get to the coronary artery.  Um, no... apparently things had to be cut through in order to get to the artery and to reattach it.  I will have to explain it in another post.  I'm getting a little overwhelmed with typing a bit right now.  I started this post at 2:27 and it is now 3:50.  I've been having a lot of conversations with doctors and nurses during this time but the laptop has been on my lap the entire time so I feel like I've been typing for almost an hour and a half!  Chelly did also mention that she has seen and worked on other ALCAPA cases and this was the sickest heart that she had seen.

Although, things are going well at this moment right now.  He's still knocked out and looks comfortable.  I will leave you with some photos I've taken today but for now I'm logging off to spend some time holding Trey's hand.

Trey before chest closure

Getting the room ready for surgery

Dr. Collazo (cardiac surgeon), Chelly (cardiac PA), Lynn (Trey's nurse today) and Dr. Dockery (pediatric attending on call for cardiac) closing Trey's chest

Trey - with a CLOSED chest and resting peacefully on heavy sedation! :-)
(the orangy-red solution around the gauze is betadine, not blood.  It's used before surgery to kill any kinds of bacteria that is on your skin to lower the risk of infection when you have surgery)