Thrombosis

It looks like Audra has developed thrombosis in the main artery in her leg - meaning there is a clot. It is likely because there was a bend in the line that was placed there for surgery. The good news is that it is in an artery and we have caught it early.

Breaking news (edited while posting): The head surgeon from the vascular team just came by to evaluate Audra and decided not to do a catheterization to remove the clot because it would do more harm than good. She is starting blood thinner and the other arteries are supporting blood flow to her leg.

Please keep Audra in your thoughts and prayers as always.

P.S. My husband bugged me a million times about posting this post to keep me busy...

Progressing Along Slowly

Audra is on the slow road to recovery. She is generally doing well. She has had some issues with her breathing. Overall, nothing major but just some bumps along the way. This is to be expected especially since she is on the young side to get her Hemi Fontan. It looks like she will be on the ventilator until tomorrow.

Audra started getting fed through her feeding tube again just a bit ago. Hopefully she does well with that. As we know, feeding is always a difficult issue. Since she doesn't drink all the milk I produce, we have found out about a milk donation program. We already had to buy an extra freezer at home and we really didn't want to come home with another large amount of milk. This way we can give back in a small way. Just in case you are interested, I do have to get a blood test (and cannot get it at UofM) to check for infectious diseases and the milk will be pasteurized.

We will keep you updated. Thanks for checking in!

Resting Time

Audra is resting now after a long day. Her oxygen saturation levels (and all other levels) are right where we expect them to be. She is breathing some on her own and she still has the ventilator in, which is standard. They are looking to get her off the ventilator tomorrow, which is also pretty routine.

We have a room at the Ronald McDonald House here in the hospital. It is literally steps from Audra since only one of us can stay with her while she is in intensive care.

What a day! It is still hard to believe that we are back here and already in recovery. We are very thankful for all the blessings that we have and for the support of all of you. We know that those prayers have been helping Audra :) Thank you!

Out of Surgery

Audra is out of surgery and doing well. We spoke with Dr. Bove and he said Audra did really well. She came off the bypass machine and her chest is closed. She is getting settled in at the bay in the PCTU and we will be able to go back to see her soon.

Dr. Bove told us this wasn't his first rodeo and that he thought Audra would do just fine, with the typical disclaimer that of course, you never know. He said that it was a pretty routine surgery and we are glad not to be the most interesting case.

Thank you for all your support, thoughts and prayers!

Surgery Update

Audra is on schedule and doing well. We expect her surgery to last at least another hour. Her surgery started a bit late since she was second case. So we had to keep her calm for an extra 45 minutes when she was super hungry :( That is one of the reasons you don't want to be second case.

We did get to meet with the surgeon, Dr. Bove, this morning. I cannot say enough good things about him. He has a very calming demeanor about him, which is appreciated when your baby is about to have her second open heart surgery. We discussed that Audra may have to be in the hospital a bit longer because of her young age but that is even TBD. But overall he says she looks great for the surgery and is cuter than before if that is possible ;)

Thanks for all the support. Please keep those thoughts and prayers coming :)

Surgery Tomorrow

We are getting ready to head over to Ann Arbor tomorrow for Audra's surgery tomorrow.  Audra is second case, so we don't have to arrive until 8:30.  The nurse practitioner said that the surgery before us was "simple" so it would go quickly.  I guess a 2 hour surgery is simple compared to a 4-5 hour surgery but it is still surgery and we have to wait for them to be done before Audra gets to go in.

Since the surgery has been scheduled so last minute, we have not had the chance to talk to Dr. Bove.  We sent him an email and he said that he will meet with us to talk a few things over before Audra's surgery.  It is not as if we have questions as to whether we should be doing the surgery.  But it will be good to speak with him because we have some questions.

Generally after the second surgery the babies stay in the hospital about a week after surgery so that is our hope.  Of course, you never know how long your stay may be.

Please keep Audra and her surgical team in your thoughts and prayers!  She is such a strong little girl and we love her so much.  We will keep you updated.

On the Way Home

Audra did well in recovery and we are in our way back home. It is a weird feeling to be leaving and know we will be back here Monday. But everything looks good for Monday and we are looking forward to meeting with our surgeon, Dr. Bove.

We ran into the fellow who did our prenatal echos. It was great to see him and talk things over with him. It is always nice to see a familiar face who knows about your history.

Here is hoping for an uneventful rest of the week and weekend.