Surgery done. All appears to be well. I did almost die when the surgeon came to us in the waiting room and first thing he said was he wanted to grab a room to talk in private, but it went well. Thanks for the kind words and thoughts. I appreciated it and needed it.
That is great news! Not that scary part, but the successful procedure! Thank you for sharing the wonderful news. I've been checking in for updates all day.
Just saw this. Great news about the surgery, and you've got positive vibes going her way for a full recovery.
When our oldest daughter had open heart surgery (at age 5 days... arterial switch to repair transposition of the great vessels) they assigned us a case worker and both she and the surgeon pulled us into a room to discuss after the surgery ended. I suspect they knew any news would have been very emotional. The hospital also put us up in a hotel across from the hospital (Lucille Packard Hospital at Stanford University) since they wanted us to be able to visit around the clock. That, and due to the seriousness of the surgery and recovery, they had parents of kids that had open heart surgery talk with us before our daughter's operation and had us tour the recovery area (to better prepare us for what was in store for our daughter). And we talked with incoming parents before our daughter was discharged.
It was weird because every other time a surgeon came to the waiting room, they would talk to the family right then and there. "Went well, blah blah blah." So when ours came and calmly suggested we get a room for some privacy, you could feel everyone in the room think "oh ****". And when we exited our room and returned to the waiting room everyone was looking at us. So yeah that was weird. But I think his reasoning is that he wanted to have a talk about moving forward, since this will require some hands-on management for a while. Anyway, she is doing well. Some pain still and other things to keep our eyes on, but I can't complain about anything (except this fold out chair-bed, which is awful).
Thanks for the updates. May the fold-out chair-bed be the worst thing by a large margin! Take good care.
Man, that has to be scary hearing those words initially, I can't imagine, but regardless glad to hear that everything went well!
Awesome news. I logged in this morning just to check this thread for an update. Odd move by the doctor. He should've known better than to scare the crap out of parents like that who are already on edge. But it should make for a good story later on!
Extremely happy all went well. Sorry I missed this. I wish you nothing but the best for your family and daughter. My little guy has had small, non-threatening issues, and this puts it all into perspective.
3 month update So we had check ins at 1 month and 3 months (today). Looking pretty good. One bad infection right after the surgery but nothing since then. Today, just after her 9 month birthday, will be the first day in her life where she did not take any medication. I'm being skimpy with the details on purpose, but to put it simply, she was previously fighting a battle on two fronts: anatomy and genetics. The surgery appears to have fixed the anatomical issue, so now we just have to deal with the issue of her body apparently being a breeding ground for very serious and hard to get rid of "superbugs." However, since the anatomy is fixed that will go a long way towards preventing the bugs from forming in the first place. So we'll see how this lack-of-daily-medicine thing goes. I'm hopeful for the best, and I actually, truly believe that the best is what will happen.
As the father of a 6 month old baby girl I can’t imagine what you’re going through. Stay strong, brother.
You have a good attitude, Mitch. Happy to hear your family is trudging along. Life is like that some times (trudging) and that's okay.
