Surgery Day!

Today was the day. Kyleigh had open heart surgery to repair the 3 heart defects. Before I go into all the details, SHE MADE IT THROUGH JUST FINE AND IS DOING GREAT!

We had to beat Christ Hospital at 6am this morning for a 7:30am surgery that was to take anywhere from 4-7 hours. The staff at Hope Children's Hospital was/is amazing. They made us feel as comfortable as possible and promised to take good care of our baby. At 7:35 they took Kyleigh into pre-op to get her ready.  This was the single most difficult thing I have ever had to do in my life. To hand her over to the surgical team, knowing what was about to take place, was excruciating! By 9:15am the nurse came out to tell us that they were already underway.  She was on the heart/lung bypass machine and they were beginning to repair the holes.

There were some complications before starting because they were not able to get in all the IV's they wanted but were able to put in a central line which was the most important one.  Then, they had trouble intubating her because she has a "tricky" airway. All in all in she was off to a great start.

To our surprise, only an hour later, the nurse came back out and said the holes were closed and they were getting her ready to come off bypass. They were hoping to have her off bypass and breathing without the tube before bringing her to the Pediatric Surgical Unit (PSHU). A painfully long half hour later she was off bypass and closed up.  They were beginning the process to extubate to see if she was ready to breath on her own and we were told we could see her in about an hour. True to their word, they came to get us an hour later to take us to see our little princess.  They were not able to take her off the ventilator at that time because they wanted to be sure she could support her own airway since her jaw is smaller.

As of now 4:45pm she is resting comfortably and waking up gradually.  She is still intubated but fighting it well. I will post another update when there is more to tell.  Bridgette and I can't thank you all enough for your thoughts and prayers. The support has meant everything to us and we know your prayers have made all the difference.   Princess Kyleigh is certainly a fighter and we are confident she will be off the ventilator soon and well on her way to recovery. In the meantime, more prayers certainly couldn't hurt.