The Gory Details

We are still set for 8 am Tuesday morning so I wanted to give the details of Eden's surgery.

As I have said before, we are told time and again how risky this surgery will be and just how sick she will be post-op.  Dr. Pearl is not sure in what order he is going to do things, so I will just list them as they make sense to me.  They will take her back and get her situated in the OR by placing any more IV's and lines that she will need.  I assure you that she will be "highly decorated" after surgery with lots of tubes and wires running every which way.  Once they open her chest up again they will put her on the heart-lung bypass machine.  This machine does the work for the heart and lungs so they can work on her.  It is necessary for her to be on bypass the entire procedure to do all of the repairs.  They will first open up her heart and work on the holes.  She has one large hole in between her right and left ventricles and one large hole between her right and left atria as well.  They will probably have to patch these as they are too big just to sew together.  Dr. Pearl will then have to work on her mitral valve.  This is the valve that separates the left atrium and ventricle and is crucial to her overall post-op success.  This is also the most "ify" part of the surgery.  Pearl is confident from looking at her mitral valve during her last surgery that he can take tissue from elsewhere in the heart and "make it work."  Her valve is just not big enough right now and a little leaky.  Pearl told us that this will be the telltale piece to whether or not she has a good repair.  The scary thing is that if it just isn't possible to fix her valve or it does not turn out to be a "good repair," there are really not any other options.  Once he finishes in the heart he will sew that up and turn to the aorta.  She has some narrowing in the ascending section of her aorta.  This is the major vessel coming off the heart that pumps blood to the body.  The ascending section is the piece right off the heart.  Because of the narrowing, he will have to make it larger by patching a bigger piece in.  In order to do this repair, they will have to put Eden into circulatory arrest.  This is where they cool the room down and stop her heart while protecting her vital organs and brain.  This has to be done because he can not have blood pumping through the aorta while he is fixing it.  Once that is done, they will start her heart again and turn to her pulmonary artery.  If you remember from her first surgery, they put a band on her pulmonary artery to protect the blood flow and pressure to her lungs.  Now that her heart will be repaired, they can remove the patch.  I liken it to putting a rubber band on a hose.  Unfortunately, when he removes the patch her artery will not just pop back into place.  He will have to patch that open as well.  When all of this is complete, they will take her off of the bypass machine and prepare her to return to the PICU.  Pearl said that he would like to sew her up, but it will depend on how well things go and her swelling.  They will also have to look at her incision to see if it can be closed easily since she had issues before.  All of this will take 7+ hours and they hope to have her back to the PICU around 3 pm.

I just re-read that paragraph and what an ordeal my little Eden is to undergo.  Hard to believe that something so small can withstand so much.  I also have to say that I get more and more nervous, scared, anxious and worried with every passing minute.  It is so unnatural to send your baby off and completely put her life into someone else's care.  I know that so many are praying for Eden, but I ask now that you please pray for her surgeon Dr. Pearl, and the surgical team that they will be guided and inspired to do their very best work during her surgery.  I am so thankful for the Lord's strength and comfort at this time.  I have no doubt that He knows and loves each of us and desires to help us through our trials.