This day is history!

Well, our history-making little girl has come through again! We just met with Dr. Bradley, and he is pleased with the outcome of the surgery. Given Rebekah's unusual anatomy, there really was no perfect solution or repair to her heart that could have been done, but we feel that this is a best case scenario.

Rebekah is in ICU and will remain sedated probably through the night and into tomorrow. They will gradually start weaning down the ventilator and Dr. Bradley is hopeful that Rebekah will no longer need oxygen after she recovers from surgery. No promises, but he is very hopeful.

As we discussed with Dr. Bradley yesterday, the pressure in Rebekah's right ventricle was a large concern today during surgery. Dr. Bradley was able to completely close Rebekah's VSD, but Rebekah does have high pressure in her right ventricle now. However, Rebekah's heart does seem to be tolerating the high pressure well. To help relieve some of that pressure, Dr. Bradley made a small hole in the atrial septum (between the two upper chambers of her heart). There is less risk to Rebekah's heart to have a hole in the atrial septum rather than the ventricular septum, so this is the better of the two choices. Rebekah will need to continue to be monitored by frequent regular cardiology visits once we come home, but Dr. Bradley feels that her heart can tolerate this pressure over time. Eventually the plan is to let the left lung grow and keep watching the pressure in her heart to make sure she does not show signs of heart failure. Dr. Bradley did mention the likelihood of a return trip to the cath lab after a few months to recheck the pressures in her heart and maybe tweak things a little if the pressures go any higher. At this point, he does not see that Rebekah will need extra medication (for the high pressures) when we go home, but it is a possibility. Right now Rebekah is calling the shots, and the doctors are just adjusting to how her body responds to these changes.

Dr. Bradley did search for, and did not find, Rebekah's right pulmonary artery. We were all pretty certain that it wasn't there, but he wanted to look for himself, since he did not do Rebekah's first surgery. We asked if he looked at Rebekah's right lung to see if it looked healthy, but he said that there was a lot of scar tissue in that area that he didn't want to disturb today.

So, we are going to get a snack downstairs (mmm....frozen yogurt!) and then we should be able to see Rebekah around 4:30 if all is going well.

The bottom line is that Rebekah's Truncus is officially repaired, but at the cost of an atrial spetal defect and higher pressures in her right chambers. All in all, this is probably the best scenario for what could have happened today, and we are very pleased with the work Dr. Bradley did on Rebekah's heart.

Unless something else of significance happens tonight, this will probably be our last post of the day. We are going to spend some time with our little girl and try to get some rest tonight. Now the long days of recovery are ahead of us, so we will get some rest while we can.

Thank you to everyone who followed along with Rebekah's surgery today and kept us in your prayers. We appreciate each and every prayer, comment, post and email that we have gotten.


Drew and Nancy

Update #3

We did get another update in between these last two, but we were at lunch, so I'll combine them. :)

Dr. Bradley is finished constructing the conduit that will become Rebekah's pulmonary artery. We have not received any updates regarding whether or not he could close the VSD, so we're still not sure about that part.

Right now over the next hour or so is one of the most critical times of the entire surgery. Dr. Bradley is working on restarting Rebekah's heart and removing the heart/lung bypass machine. This will be a true test of how Rebekah's heart is working with her new "plumbing."

If all goes well, the surgery should be wrapping up in the next hour and a half or so. We will post more updates as we get them.

Nancy

P.S. My computer hard drive is officially dead, and Drew's computer does not have any working USB ports. Right now we can post text updates from Drew's laptop or the hospital computers, but no pictures. :( Hoping we can get mine up and running soon!

Update #2

If you're looking for update #1, scroll to the bottom of the most recent (very long) post.

Rebekah is still stable and doing well. Dr. Bradley is working on the conduit now, and from what he can tell, it looks as if he will be able to completely close Rebekah's VSD with no problems. We will have a better idea of that when he completes the conduit and begins to work on the VSD.

In other news, we just found out that we have free parking (normally $6/day) for the duration of our stay here becasue of Rebekah's handicap parking tag. We're thankful for the little blessings! :)

I also want to say (again) that we are just overwhelmed with all of your prayers and encouragement today. You don't realize how special it is to open our facebook pages and see Rebekah's name and pictures along with prayer requests on so many of your pages. Thank you!!!

Nancy