Heart Surgery Date

We got the call last week that the cardiologists and surgeons had met and discussed Katie’s situation. Our doctor actually pushed Katie up the discussion list, to get her evaluated before Christmas. They all agreed with our doctor that Katie is a perfect candidate, because she is doing so well, to do the surgery early and try to prevent the need for another surgery later in life.

Katie’s surgery is scheduled for Thursday, Jan 16 in Rochester. The surgeon wants to do the surgery in Rochester, rather than Syracuse, because the anesthesiologist in Rochester is more experienced and confident with small babies.

The surgery should take four hours with the surgeon only needing one hour. The first hour is preparation and the last two hours will be waiting for her to wake up from the anesthesia. She could be in the hospital from 5 days to 3 weeks depending upon how well she recovers. The average is usually 10-14 days. The main recovery hurdles are coming off the oxygen, removing the chest tube that will help drain extra fluid, and then getting back to eating well and removing the IV.

It is essential that Katie does not get sick for the next two months. If she gets sick before the surgery they will postpone it. If she gets sick after the surgery she could have trouble recovering or even need to go back to the hospital. We have been working very hard with Ellee to teach her about germs but she is still having trouble keeping her hands clean and off of Katie. We have decided to go into a semi-isolation.

Ellee is out of preschool for the next two weeks for Christmas. We are going to make it an extended break and keep her home from school, church and other public places until the surgery and maybe after too. If she does leave the house we are going to be very careful about hand washing, not touching, etc. We are planning a quiet winter in the house with crafts, books, movies, puzzles, games, and playing outside.

So Mike and I are scientists and needed to know what was going to happen to Katie. Here are the details…stop reading if you don’t want to know! Katie’s surgery is full open heart surgery. Her chest will be cut open, her ribs opened, they will stop her heart, and keep her alive on a heart-lung bypass machine. They will close the hole between her ventricles with a patch of Gortex and open up her pulmonary artery to allow the blood to flow normally. If this early attempt is successful, the pulmonary valve will function normally and will keep blood from leaking through the artery. If the pulmonary valve is leaky, they will need to do another surgery when she is a teenager.