1 week old! Heart surgery day

Annelise is now in surgery, being worked on by Dr. Hammel.  Kevin and I are in a private waiting room, and the nurse calls us with updates.

3pm update:  They have started repair of the aortic arch, and will be getting ready to repair the big vsd and finish the arch repair now.

4:30pm update:  They have finished the planned procedures. Now before they complete the surgery, they’ll do another echocardiogram to check out their work, and then start closing her up!  Praying for seemless work and no infections during recovery!


5:45pm update:  All of the team is still with Annelise.  She is still bleeding, which they tell me is not too uncommon.  They will give her more blood products and wait for her to stop bleeding.  The nurse tells me she is still doing great.  The surgeon is still watching, and could possibly need to leave her chest open, to allow for swelling.  She is so little, there isn’t much room in there for her heart, lungs, AND swelling.  I only recommend googling how they can leave a chest open after surgery if you have a strong stomach!  To be continued.

6:10pm update:  Dr. Hammel just came into the waiting room!  He’s done repairing her heart!  He said she’s got a repaired vsd and new aortic arch, and all looks good, with good heart rhythms, so she won’t need a pacemaker (that was one of the risks).  He said the bleeding seems to be under control now, and so he decided to close up her chest (yay!) and the rest of the team is getting her ready to go up to the PICU, where we’ll eventually get to see her tonight!  A nurse told us to prepare to wait 1-3 hours for them to get her settled... so we’ll go up now to a new waiting room.  She still has very thin blood, so they will watch her and give her more blood products when needed. Praying her blood gets thicker soon, that it all drains properly, and no extra blood stays in the body, needing to be removed with a new surgery (another risk for the near future).  Thank you Jesus for gifting these doctors and nurses with so many skills and a passion to help babies like our irreplaceable Annelise!💖🥰💕😍❤️