Surgery is on

OK, so ignore all of my uninformed speculation in the last post. Dr. Karl just came by and said "okay, everything's on for the Fontan as planned." He saw what he needed from the MRI and will be attaching the hepatic veins to the pulmonary artery in a patch. Riley's is the first surgery planned tomorrow so they'll take him down to the operating theatre at about 6:30am. They'll administer Versed and we'll stay with him until he's off in la-la land and they wheel him into the operating room.

Dr. Karl said he sees the hepatic vein issue "all the time" with heterotaxic patients. My favorite quote (when asked if the hepatic vein connection increases risks or complexity): "the complexity of any one procedure is in no way connected to our expectation of a normal outcome." Spoken like one of the world's best surgeons. The biggest risk with the Fontan is pressure in the lungs. After the procedure, blood flow to the lungs will use gravity and the pressure from the heart's sole ventricle, so low pressure to the lungs is a concern. However, Riley's pressures look good and Dr. Karl expects a successful outcome.

So now we have an x-ray, urine sample and EKG to go and hope for a decent night sleep. I am keeping myself occupied with the thought of seeing Riley post-op and looking up at the oxygen saturation levels and seeing 90%+ for the first time in his life. It's hard to imagine.

One note on blood transfusions. We have three units of directed blood donated for Riley's surgery. One unit from me and two from friends of Suzanne (I'm sorry, but my tired brain can't remember from whom). The nurse practitioner says she hopes they won't need the full three units. They tend to use less with each procedure. With the Glenn, they needed a unit to prime the heart-lung machine, but Riley's bigger and they won't need it this time.