PCICU

Savannah is out of surgery and in the PCICU.  Her heart rate is too slow, so Dr. Bradley left her pacing wires in her heart.  She is also battling a slightly elevated blood pressure.  Needless to say they are keeping her heavily sedated. 

That's a good thing.  As long as she's sedated, she won't notice she is still intubated.

I love meeting with Dr. Bradley after surgeries.  He is the picture of calm and collected.  After spending 6+ hours in the OR he acts like he just took a stroll around the block. 

He calmly sat down and discussed Savannah Faith's heart.  As he suspected,  her left pulmonary artery was severely hypoplastic.  He augmented it as much as possible.  He also left pulmonary inflow, although, since she still has severe pulmonary stenosis, it won't introduce a lot of blood flow.

Everything else was fairly straight forward for a Glen.  He recommended waiting for a while before doing the Fontan (longer than a year).  He wants Savannah Faith to get completely caught up developmentally.

I told him he had to promise me he wouldn't retire before I brought her back for her Fontan.  Since I calculate he and I are close to the same age, I hope he makes good on that promise!

I can't imagine letting anyone else touch my girls' hearts.

Now the waiting game begins. 

 

Waiting for extubation.

 

Waiting for her heart rhythm to stabilize.

 

Waiting for her blood pressure to come down.

 

Waiting for her drainage to slow.

The reality of the fragility of life came crashing down 10 minutes ago, when a family in the PCICU waiting room received the tragic news that their daughter didn't survive after her open-heart surgery.

I tried to shine the light of Christ by reading to their five year old daughter as she watched her mother and father sob uncontrollably and hold their twin son who now will never know his twin sister. 

Pray for that family. 

 

Pray for God's comfort. 

 

Pray that He will be glorified in our responses and words.