Post-Op

We just met with Dr. Reddy and he updated us on the surgery. He said it went very well and he is happy with the outcome. They repaired the coarc first and were able to cut out the narrowed portion and pull it together without having to use any additional tissue. They put him on the heart-lung bypass machine for a little while during the repair but did not have to stop the heart. While he was on the bypass machine, they did have to give him a blood transfusion which is normal under these circumstances.

Once the coarc was repaired, they repaired the diaphragm. As they believed before going into surgery, it was an eventration and not an actual hernia (hole) in the diaphragm. There was good, healthy, diaphragm muscle all around the one area that was bulging up with the liver. They were able to take tissue from Caden's pericardium and stitch it to one side of the healthy part of the diaphragm and stretch it across to the other side and stitch it down from there. They didn't have to push the liver down with their hands because once they got the strong piece of the pericardium attached it naturally went down on its own. This was good because the liver is very easily damaged or punctured and could result in bleeding, etc. So it was good they didn't have to push it down. In addition, the right lung was attached to the diaphragm muscle and they had to cut that apart. As soon as the eventration was corrected, the right lung did inflate and get bigger which is what they were hoping for. It was definitely being compressed by the eventration.

Dr. Reddy expects Caden to be in CVICU for 24-48 hours but expects him to do well. They are currently doing an abdominal ultrasound to make sure everything looked good with the liver and the lungs. We asked where Caden would go after his stay in CVICU and he asked where we would like to go. We told him we would just assume he go back to NICU since we are familiar with the staff there and Dr. Reddy said that is what he would tell them.

We are so grateful and so happy things went well. We still haven't seen Caden yet because they were unable to get him immediately to his room because the previous occupant hadn't been moved to another unit yet. We were told we would get to see him in another 20 minutes or so. We know that God was present with Caden in the operating room and with the doctors as they performed surgery. We are looking forward to seeing him even though it's going to be hard with all the additional tubes/wires and all. God is so good and we are so blessed. Thank you so much for your prayers! Now we are hoping for a quick recovery and that Caden is able to eat well so we can go home!