Pre-op Fun

The Day of the Fontan started early… the alarm went off at 4:20am so that we could be at the hospital between 5:30 and 6:00am. Got off to an exciting start when we realized that we woke up to pouring rain… not something we see often in the desert!

Once we arrived at the hospital, things went somewhat smooth at first. Andrew is still flagged for his previous MRSA infection, so we had to stay and play in our own room. No problem… we snagged a car to ride around in and played on the Ipad.

All was going well until the nurse came in… she had to deliver the news that they needed to draw more blood. The blood that they drew on Friday tested positive for a certain type of protein. Because of that, they had to run more tests and there wasn’t enough blood to finish, so they needed more. Andrew was not thrilled in the least, but he was such a big boy! Only two nurses were needed this time around.

The protein that they found in his blood (has a long name that I will have to have them write down later) causes his blood to clot in extreme cold. Dr. Pearl was notified of this last night and explained to us that it takes more cold than what we get here. However, it means that he needs to be careful when they cool Andrew’s body for surgery. Instead of 30-32 degrees, they will probably only go down to 34. Dr. Pearl didn’t seemed to concerned, but leave it to Andrew to throw a curveball every once in awhile.

After that, things went well and quickly. They gave Andrew Versed to relax him for the trip to the OR. It worked great! Within about 10 minutes, he was giggling up a storm. We were highly entertained watching Andrew play Angry Birds and watch You Tube videos.

It is never easy to leave him as he goes to the OR, but we have looked forward to this last stage for so long, it does feel good to get it started. He went in about 8:00am and we are awaiting the first updates as it will take a couple of hours to get started (we just got word at 9:50am that they were finally starting surgery). Thank you for all who are praying for us today!

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