After the longest day of our lives, her first surgery was a success. I believe it was a good 5-6 hours that she was in there and all went very well. She had what they call a Norwood with a Sano, which made her bottom chambers of her heart a single ventricle since her left side was still very narrow and could not pump on it’s own. They of course had told us they would be leaving her chest open for a few days just in case they needed to get back in for anything quickly and of course she had a breathing tube and was completely sedated.

Nothing ever prepares you for seeing your baby right after open heart surgery. So helpless and pale looking. Nor are you prepared for all the other wires and things that she was hooked up to on top of what she had to begin with. Once they had her settled back in her room we were allowed back finally and were able to ask a million questions about everything she was hooked up to. Those nurses are amazing with how they have to go through all of the cords and things to make sure everything is hooked up correctly to monitors. They each had their own way of “organizing” things too. We were both so overwhelmed by it all. They had 2-3 nurses in her room all night long monitoring everything, and I mean everything. At that young of an age, they have to calculate and recalculate everything depending on her numbers and how she looks. The pain meds, the paralytic, the oxygen, blood pressure meds, etc. She had drain tubes that came out of her chest under her dressing from the surgery to see how much blood drainage was coming out. Poor baby had a catheter to see how much she was peeing too. You truly get traumatized with seeing all of it. Such an innocent little thing having to go through all of this and she can’t tell you anything.

I stayed for a 2nd night to be with her while my husband went home to take care of our dogs and cats. Our son luckily was with our parents so he was happy and having fun. They keep the lights on all night as well in her room, so not much sleep for the 2nd night for me, but she did well over the night and they were happy with how everything looked. Her heart surgeon was very impressed at how strong she was and how well she handled the procedure. Finally, a bit of good news in the storm of uncertainties. If all went well, we’d be able to move up to the main floor in a couple weeks and have a couple weeks to recover before going home……at least that’s what we had hoped.