Done!!!

Caden is done! Dr. Reddy came to see us right around 5:00 pm. He said everything went very smoothly and he was very happy with the repair! He said Caden actually had three pulmonary veins and all of them were going to the wrong place. Two of them drained into the upper part of the inferior vena cava and the other one drained high up on the right atrium. All of them are supposed to go into the left atrium. 

He created a baffle out of CorMatrix taken from a pig (excuse my misinformation on the last post about this). It is large on one end to capture the blood from all three pulmonary veins and then gets smaller as it tunnels it through the baffle into the left atrium. They created an atrial septal defect (ASD) or hole between the left and right atrium in order to tunnel the blood into the correct place in the heart.

He said Caden's diaphragm plication from when he was two weeks old looks good. He also checked out the coarctation repair which he also did at two weeks and said it looks perfect. And he didn't think there was any damage or stress to the phrenic nerve during this surgery so that was good news also.

We talked about Caden's respiratory issues and he said he doesn't believe he has asthma. He thinks that his respiratory issues will most likely resolve themselves now that this repair is done. Of course time will tell whether or not that will be true. We are hopeful this is going to be the case. He said within 6 months the CorMatrix should be replaced by native tissue. He didn't anticipate any problems down the road with this repair.

Dr. Reddy also thought this would be the last heart surgery Caden should need. Of course we have heard that before. We didn't think Caden would need to have any heart surgery again and here we are. So I think for my own sanity I will just have to think that there is always the possibility, although slight, that there could be another surgery at some point down the road. Otherwise I feel like I am setting myself up for disappointment again. But we have continued to place Caden in God's hands and He will provide regardless of what the future holds.

We haven't gotten to see Caden yet as the anesthesia team and CVICU team haven't gotten him settled into a room yet. But we will update again later after that happens. Thank you all for your continued prayers!