Karter went into Surgery on July 7th, 2010 at 9:15 a.m. she came out of surgery at about 8:00 p.m. that evening. Seeing our baby girl for the first time after surgery was amazing. To see her and know that we would no longer have to worry about her losing oxygen so fast was an incredible feeling. The repair went very well and they were able to get a good fix. They did have to insert a Pulmonary Valve Conduit because her valve was a size five and they needed it to at least be a nine. Therefore he put in a size 12 conduit which will allow more blood to flow. Due to them having to use this conduit she will have to have another surgery at about age two give or take. She will then require a few more surgeries as she grows to make the valve an appropriate size for her body.
Today she has been very stable. They are having to watch her blood pressure very closely because it keeps going either too high or mainly too low. They are giving her a little medicine to help with this and they are also giving her some volume (fluids through a syringe). They tried to wean her from her pacemaker today. Her heart rhythm looked great when they did it, it only dropped to about 130 beats per minute which is great for a baby. However, the rest of her vitals dropped below what they would like so they had to keep her on it for now. It is good news though that they were able to pull it off and keep her heart rhythm good. The other statistics should level out over the next few days so they should be able to pull it for good soon. They still have her on her ventilator but are slowly weaning it and hope to be able to excavate her tomorrow. It will be good to see her breathing on her own again!
Karter Bear did wake up once today so they gave her some more sedation medicine so that they could pull one of her small lines from her heart. After pulling this line they began to wean her off of her sedation medicine. She still has pain medication which is keeping her asleep and pretty still throughout the day. If they are able to pull out the breathing tube then she will be able to eat again tomorrow. How amazing is that?
It simply is astounding to see how much they can do with these little ones. I mean the girl just had open heart surgery yesterday and she might be eating again tomorrow! Wow! One of her new friends Allison (who also has down syndrome and an AV Canal defect, which was one of Karter's defects) is already headed to the recovery floor and she just had surgery yesterday! I can not believe how fast these precious babies heal! I know all of this is in accordance to God's plan but it still leaves me speechless to see his healing powers on these tiny angels.
I will leave you tonight with two pictures of Karter from last night. She just looks like a little sleeping beauty.
Karter with all of her tubes and her little bear watching over her!
All of these lines and tubes will slowly disappear over the next few days.
By the way our nurse was quickly told by the other nurses that Karter was to have a bow on her head! :) They knew if they did not put one there then her mamma would! Haha!
Thanks for all of your prayers and support! Please just pray now for a good recovery without any complications!
Love,
The McHams'
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