Liveblogging Evie's Surgery (updated 10:00PM)

Latest update: Operation a success! Post-operation photos up.

Evie's surgery is today. Keep refreshing this page as we'll continually edit this post and will be posting frequent updates throughout the day for those of you following along at home!

4:30AM - We were on the road to the hospital with a sleepy/cranky baby!

5:30AM - Checked in and Evie was doing pretty well. She liked looking at all of the other kids in the pre-surgery waiting room. Evie earned a "Best Behavior" award!


"You're going to do WHAT to me? You said we were going to get cookies!"

6:00AM - We're in our family prep room where we had to get Evie into the "clown gown." I don't understand why these things are so big. Doesn't the hospital realize babies are very small? Evie was still being a good little girl and giving lots of smiles.






6:15AM - A very nice nurse, Mary, came in and gave Evie a little check up and asked us a TON of questions, like any allergies, family history, was she in an abusive relationship (I'm serious! She asked us that; it was a "check off box" on her list), did she drink(!?!), could she sit up on her own, could she "wave bye-bye," and on and on. Once again, just like the Clown Gown(TM), I think they need a separate list of questions for babies.



7:00AM - We had to kill some time until the anesthesiologist arrived to talk with us, so Sharon took Evie on a walk around the floor. There were several other babies around and one cute little 4-year old who liked looking at Evie. Several nurses and random strangers stopped to coo over her as well.


"Superstar!" (that's the Clown Gown).



"I'm sleepy; can we go home now?"

7:30AM - The anesthesiologist arrived, along with a surgical assistant (who swooned over Evie). Everyone keeps asking us to "tell them the procedure in our own words." I told the last 3 people that who've asked me; you'd think one time would be enough. After we spoke with them, another nurse came by to wrap Evie up in a warm blanket and take her into surgery. The operation should last 3-4 hours if there are no complications.

8:00AM - Sharon and I are having some breakfast and blogging. Evie did remarkably well for not having eaten since 2:45AM. She hardly fussed at all and was in a great mood. All the staff have been great and we feel really good about the whole thing.

10:30AM - (hour 3 of surgery) One of the surgeon's nurses gave us an update in the waiting room that things were progressing slowly and that Evie was doing "okay." Her oxygen saturation levels were low (in the 60s), and they had a heart/lung machine standing by in case they had to put Evie on it. Normally her levels are around 75-85. The last time her levels dipped to 63 was when her cardiologist rushed her to the ER.

11:30AM - (Hour 4 of surgery) Got another update from the nurse. Her oxygen saturation levels are the same, but haven't gone any lower, so she is not on the heart/lung machine yet. However, they are proceeding slowly. Apparently they have to move her lung partially out of the way to do the procedure and that slight compression affects her oxygen levels. The surgeon has tied off her MAPCAs, has connected them to her natural pulmonary artery, and is getting ready to connect the shunt. The nurse estimates it will be another hour.

1:30PM - (Hour 6 of surgery) We were told that the surgery was essentially complete, they were just closing her up, and that it went as well as could be expected! Evie never had to go on the heart/lung machine, but she did need to use some of the blood that Sharon had donated earlier in the week for her. We were taken to the family waiting room in the pediatric intensive care unit for heart surgery patients, while Evie spent some time in post-op and getting set up in her room.

3:00PM - We were finally able to see Evie for the first time since we handed her off to the nurses at 7:30AM this morning. Honestly, she looked a lot better than I was expecting. Yes, there are a lot of tubes attached to her and it was very difficult to see her like that, but her color looked great, and her hands were a nice bright pink, rather than their normal bluish tint. She was heavily sedated, but not unconcious, and her one hand would weakly grasp your finger, and occassionally her eyes would flutter open and she would briefly look around before falling back to sleep.

3:30PM - Grandpa and Nana Cermak arived to settle in and spend the afternoon and evening with Evie. Sharon had been up since 2AM and we needed to get back home to relieve her father, who had been watching Gavin all day. Dr. Ilbawi, Evie's surgeon, came in to talk with us too. He said the size of the arteries he was moving and reataching were about as thick as the tip of a pen. I am still amazed at how it is medically possible to do what he did. Dr. Ilbawi explained to us that her incision can be quite painful because of the amount of muscle tissue he has to cut though. Poor little thing.





You can see she's got a hold of Sharon's finger there. She has three IV's: one in her right ankle, one in her left thigh and one in her left wrist. She's got a breathing tube, catheter and a tube that goes into her stomach, which sucks out stomach acids and keeps it empty. The "patch" on her head monitors some type of brain function, and she has a similar patch on her back, near her kidney and liver.

You can see dressing on her right side, where the chest tube exits her body. This drains away excess fluid around the lungs. Dr. Ilbawi actually had to move her lung and heart slightly out of the way to do the procedure, and they were slightly compressed, so she's on several medications to keep everything regular and even so the organs can relax and heal.

The actual incision is a bit tough to see from these photos (we didn't want to move her too much). It is slightly above and behind the large dressing with the chest tube. The nurse told us that they stitch it closed from the inside, and only the last suture is visible from the outside, so there will only be a small, thin scar.

8:00PM - The word from my parents is that the anaesthetic is wearing off and that Evie is very alert, relaxed and charming all of the nurses with her big smiles. She cannot make any sounds because of the breathing tube, but she seems to be in good spirits. The nurses will keep her heavily sedated tonight so that she can recover. She should be in the intensive care unit for about 48 hours, and then she'll be moved to the pediatric unit. If all goes well, she could be discharged next Wednesday.

Thank you to everyone who has been keeping little Evie in their thoughts and prayers today: they worked! We took a lot more cute photos of Evie today than are posted here on the blog; lots of her playing in front of the mirror. All of the day's photos are up on Flikr.com can be seen by clicking here.