Sunday Update

When we went to visit Drew this morning they had already removed her chest tubes! She looks so much better. They also took her off the paralyzing medication and by 3:00 PM she was completely awake. Drew was excited to see us after the week long nap she has taken… She was confused and started to cry at first but settled down and was very content as she looked back and forth between us. They may wean her of the ventilator as soon as tomorrow.

One step closer

The surgeons came in today and have decided that they are going to take out Drew's chest tubes tomorrow.
We are now one step closer to going home! I will update more after the procedure is done.

Friday Update

They were able to clear out quite a bit fluid in Drew's lungs by moving her lines. Her new X-ray looks much better. We will keep you posted.

YAY!!!

Drew's chest is now closed up!
The doctor is keeping an eye on her for the next 30 minutes. He said everything went well and that she is doing fine.
No word on the fluid on her lungs as of yet.
When we hear more we will update.

New Update

The surgeons made us sign a consent form today to close up her chest tomorrow (friday). She was doing great all day today until tonight. One side of her lungs is holding fluids so they had to up her meds and started giving her breathing treatments. We are praying that by tomorrow morning her lungs will be completely clear. She also having problems with her eyes. She is not able to close them all they way and I guess they are drying up a little bit and it looks like blisters in the corner of her eyeball. It is common and not a major problems but it still bugs me.
We are looking at about 3 more days after they close up her chest for her to be on the ventilator. That is if her lungs clear up. The longer they hold fluids the longer she stays on the vent.
Please keep praying for Drew. We love you all and thank you for all of your support.

SURGERY UPDATE

Sorry it took so long to update the blog, we have to been trying to spend every minute we can with Drew. The surgery Monday took 7 hours to complete and then she stayed in the operating room for an extra 5 hours. Drew had a hard time coming off of heart bypass, they tried 3 times. They were very concerned; she didn’t have any pulses in her legs so they put her on some serious blood pressure medicine and finally go a pulse. They couldn’t close up her chest until she stopped bleeding. Her chest was left open incase they have to go back in and do an emergency surgery. The surgeons stayed with her for 5 hours to make sure they didn’t have to hook her up to a heart & lung bypass machine. Thank you Lord for answering our prayers, we are so thankful she didn’t have to be put on the heart & lung bypass.

The surgeons were only able to repair her co-arctation due to the extensive scar tissue that took 2 hours to get through. The VSD surgery will have to wait till a later date, possibly in 2 months. They were also able to remove the PA banding.

They moved Drew to PICU around 10:30 and we were able to see her around 11:00. She really looks good. The first 48 hours are very critical and she is pulling through by the grace of God, Drew is a strong girl. The surgeon was completely amazed at how well she is doing. He said that there was no reason that she should have been alive after her first surgery. She only had a string size of blood flow going through her aorta on the right side of her heart and the PA band on the left side which constricted blood flow. Drew is our miracle baby!

Drew is doing very well considering the complications. Thank you for all your prayers and support. We will keep you posted. Right now they are keeping a close eye on her and will probably close her up in a few days. Her recovery will take at least three weeks.

Let me elaborate a little more

The heart cath procedure went great, no problems with the procedure. We did get some not so great news though. The surgery Drew had done when she was 2 weeks old needs to be redone. :( Which so far right now means instead of doing the VSD closer this monday the are going to do the coarctation repair instead. That means we will still have another surgery after this one. This is not what we wanted to hear at all. The 2 surgeries can be done together but this surgeon doesnt want to. So we either need to find a new surgeon or go ahead with this surgery on monday. Please keep us in your prayers and pray we make the right decision.

Heart Cath Update

The Heart Cath went well, Drew is doing good. They decided not to pursue a balloon on Drew's aorta, they will reconstruct her aorta when they repair the VSD.

We will stay tonight in the PEDS floor with Drew and go home tomorrow.

Thanks for all your prayers and support...

Change of plans

We are still leaving tonight to get the heart cath done tomorrow. The pedi gave her the go ahead, meaning she is not sick.
Dr. Bob decided he was going to do a ballon on her Aorta also. The first surgery they did right after she was born was to repair the arch of the arota well it is still kinda tight with not a great flow as they would have liked so the are going to put a ballon to stretch it a bit. Which means at least a one night stay in the PICU at Children's in New Orelans. Please keep Drew in your prayers as she will need all you can give her.

Heart cath

Is this friday. We decided to leave on Thursday night. The cath is scheduled for 9 am and they want us there for 7 am. It is an outpatient procedure so we will be coming home friday evening. Please pray that all goes well and we get back great results.