The surgery is done! Charlize is in the Pediatrics Intensive Care Unit and will be there at least 10 days or so.
For some details, feel free to go read my wife’s () blog.
Here’s my summary report:
Wednesday night ended at 11:30pm after giving Charlize her medication. Thursday morning began at 3:00am with waking her up for a final feeding, followed by a bath with special soap given to us at the hospital on Monday, followed by her last dose of medication. We left the house at 6am and quickly went through admissions before settling in at the ACM. Charlize was in SUCH good spirits that she gurgled and laughed and giggled away for a good hour! Even got a few minutes of that down on video thanks to our new digital camera! 🙂
At 7:45am we went up to the 10th floor (operating area) and soon met with the two anesthesiologists (Dr. Hunter, Dr. Coté) who were as great as when we first met them on Monday. By the way, we now know her blood type! O Positive, just like her daddy! 🙂 We talked again about the procedure and then waited for them to take her away. Chantale rocked her as she held onto her favorite horsie/pacifier, while wrapped up in an extremely warm pink blanket (with hearts! :)). Again, pictures to follow 🙂 At 8:10am, Dr. Coté took our little bundle and walked into the O.R. while we headed back down to the 7th floor and the ACM.
We eventually got to meet the surgeon, (who’s name I can’t spell right now) who told us what he was planning to do and explained all the possible complications. Shortly after that Chantale’s parents and sister showed up and we headed out for coffee. At 11am, we were informed that Charlize was safely sedated and the surgery was underway. We knew we’d have about 4 hours until it was over so we headed for lunch.
A nice long walk through downtown Montreal in a light misty rain set a somewhat peaceful pace which stayed with us through an incredibly delicious Anniversary Lunch. Everyone was very impressed with Toyo’s and quite full by the time we stumbled out of there an hour later 🙂
We got to the doors of the hospital just as our nurse called to tell us the operation was over and Charlize got off of by-pass like a champ and would soon be moved to the ICU. Oh, sweet relief! It was another couple of hours before we got to see her but in the meantime we did get to talk to the surgeon again who admitted that in the 20+ years of his practice, he had never encountered this type of surgery. It seems like she didn’t really have Tetrology of Fallot, but rather Double Outlet Right Ventrical which mimicked a ToF! This came a long way to explaining why she had begun degenerating so quickly recently.
The surgical repair was the same (close up the big hole, etc) but the approach was a little different. Basically, they cut open where they were expecting the hole… only to not find it where it should be! It took another two cuts (one through the aorta, one by the back) until they found and closed it. The really great news was that her valve was absolutely fine (he pushed through a 7mm wire through it which was more than good enough for him) and thus it did not have to be removed. The trickier news was that with the added manipulation of the heart, they did not know how much damage, if any, she had sustained to her nerves. Meaning that she is currently being paced and if her heart doesn’t take over (which normally takes a couple of days post-op) she will need to have a pacemaker permanently installed. They will take no action until 10 days at least.
When we finally got to see her (after that nasty business with the gas leak at Alexis Nihon which necessitated a shutdown of the AC and closure of all windows plus a postponement of surgeries at the MCH), it was with tears of joy (at least for me!) and relief as we saw her on her bed looking asleep but still like a million bucks! Strangely, she looked a lot like Kyle at that moment! 🙂 But, she didn’t have chest tubes installed and all the ones she did have just did not look like anywhere NEAR the horror we were expecting. Yes, the docs and nurses always tell you to brace yourself for a shock, but, seriously, we’ve seen worse and she was definitely not that bad. We did take some pictures (this is part of her life story after all) and we’ll see about what we share. After all, we know how much some of the photos and stories we’ve seen and read online have helped us through this ordeal and we want to pass it forward. The greatest joy however had to be in seeing her very pink lips and tongue 🙂 Seeing her ashen and gray/ blue for so long it was pure heaven to see her pink!
Lots of questions were asked and lots were answered. Monica, her nurse in the ICU was just great and attentive. Within an hour, Charlize was also taken off of dopamine because she was able to maintain her blood pressure without help! We all took the time (in twos) to visit with Charlize and when the downtown emergency was finally cleared, we headed home tired but so happy.
This morning we really wanted to sleep in. However, the folks we hired to do our driveway had other ideas as they finally (3 months later) decided that today was the day they would work on it and were on our street at 7am. Still, I cannot begin to remember the last time I slept 7 hours STRAIGHT! Woah. 🙂 Chantale finally fell back to sleep at around 8am while I’ve been working from home. We’ll be heading back to the hospital but I’m not sure just when. More updates to obviously follow.
Thanks again, everyone, for all your kind words, thoughts, and prayers. They have all been very, very appreciated!