Less Than 24 Hours

There's less than 24 hours before Will's heart surgery now. I'm starting to get really nervous about it. The surgeon came into his room last week and explained to me a little about how his surgery would go and some of the risks. The risks are so scary. Here's the quick explanation of what the surgery is going to entail.

Will is having a coarctation repair. This means they will be fixing the section of his aorta that is really narrow and not formed correctly. They will make an incision under his left arm to get to his heart. Basically they will clamp his aorta on both ends of the coarctation and then remove the section that is problematic. Then they will stitch the ends back together and remove the clamps. During the surgery they will also close his PDA (which they have been keeping open with meds to help his heart function).

There is way more to the surgery than that, but I just wanted everyone to know the basics of what it is. He is scheduled for 8am tomorrow morning and once they have him intubated, all his lines put in and stuff (which should take about and hour or so) the surgery should take 2-2.5 hours. He will come back to his same room in the PICU and will probably be intubated for the remainder of the day. He will also have a chest tube in (to drain any fluid from around his heart) for anywhere from 1-4 days. As long as he is intubated and has a chest tube we won't be able to hold him.

My parents, Joe's mom & Julianna will all be at the hospital with us tomorrow. We decided we wanted Julianna to be with us tomorrow partially to hopefully keep us distracted but also so our family would all be together.

Please continue to pray for Will, that his heart will be healed & for strength in his recovery.

Please pray for his surgeons, that they are successful during the surgery and that everything goes smoothly.

And please pray for Joe and I and our families, that we can relax and find peace tonight and that tomorrow we can stay calm and be strong for both our kids.

THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone that has shown their support for us so far, we greatly appreciate all the meals, the babysitting, the financial support, and the prayers...definitely appreciate all the prayers!