Pre-op & a naked baby

We wanted to get some good naked baby pics before Elijah has a scar on his chest. He has been SUCH a good, happy boy today. He's such a good sport considering all the poking that was done to him at the hospital earlier. Below the pics, Dan wrote an update on how pre-op went today.






Hey everyone, we just got back from Elijah's pre-op appt and all went well (except for the blood drawing and too much poking of my boy and me punching out a nurse, okay that last part didn't happen but almost).

Here are the details we have now (due to tiredness and speedy typing this will not be grammatically correct): he'll go in at 8 tomorrow morning and the actual sugery will take about 2-3 hrs but we won't see him for 5-6 hours due to putting him on a bypass machine so they can stop his heart and drain it to operate on it. That process takes time and they'll have to watch closely as they "restart" his heart afterwards to make sure there are no leaks. He'll be in the icu for 2-3 days and then a recovery room for another 7-11 days for a total hospital stay of 10-14 days. One of the things that may keep him in the hospital an extra few days may be his kidney "issue" (the fact that he has only one). His little body has to process a lot of fluids, especially during and after surgery, so we will just have to monitor that and see how it goes. Dr. G feels confident that they'll be able to close his chest after surgery (infants often have to be kept open due to swelling). During the surgery the main thing they will do is put a straw-like tube where his pulmonary valve should have developed, then they will see if they can "tie off" some of the collaterals that his body grew, to compensate for not having that valve, to the pulmonary artery. There are obvious risks of stroke and infection and other complications but the Dr. said he felt Elijah has a %90+ chance for a successful procedure.

After this surgery he'll have another one in 6 mos to a year during which they will fix the hole in his heart and replace the straw-like tube with a pig or cadaver valve. This valve will work for a few years until he grows out of it and then it will be replaced when he's around 5 yrs old, and hopefully the last step will be putting in an adult sized valve when he's around 15.

Tomorrow is the first step and it's the biggest/most dangerous but we are feeling very confident and faithful. We are so grateful for all the support we have been receiving, it's truly amazing to feel the care and love of so many. God has been good to us and He will continue to carry us through this trial.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support.

We will continue to update the blog as Elijah progresses through this first operation.

ps. Megan is beautiful and amazing and Elijah Loooves smiling at his mommy!