What a day - Henry is out of surgery and he did great

This morning Dr. Ross told us to expect to see him around 1, but more likely 2.... at precisely 1:10, he appeared... At that moment, it feels like your heart stops... Is this too soon for things to have gone well? Does he look happy? Is there any visible sign in his demeanor to tell us how things went?  Your mind races and so does adrenalin.  Happily, Dr. Ross was full of good news.  He was able to complete the Yasui as he had hoped.  The muscle bar they have queried over the past months re: if it will be amenable to resection...well, they didn't have to move it.  It wasn't in the way and they were able to work around it. No pacemaker. No bleeding. Pretty much all went according to plan. There are more details but thats enough detail for the blog.  What an immense relief.  For the second time in as many surgeries, Henry has come through with flying colours.  Henry's oxygen saturations on oxygen were sitting in the mid-70's pre-surgery and are now 100% (just like most of us).  His colour is better (since his heart now pumps "red" blood - not a mix of "blue" and "red").  Henry has an RV (right ventricle) to PA (pulmonary artery) conduit.  Since this is bovine tissue and will not grow as Henry does, it will have to be replaced -- good news is that shouldn't be for around 5 years from now.

This is a picture of a small team bringing Henry from the OR to PICU. On the left is the anaesthetist. Front right is Dr. Ross' surgical fellow (who also assisted on Henry's 1st open heart surgery).  It is the happiest sight on earth to see your little one coming back to you after such a big and complicated surgery.

The next 24 hours can be rocky and we hope and pray all will continue on its current trajectory.  We just spoke to the night nurse on the phone and Henry will be weaned down to the lowest pain meds around 2 am with the goal of getting him off the ventilator overnight/tomorrow am.  From there, if his minimal bleeding continues to diminish, the chest tube removal will follow. Following those 2 things, Henry will likely transfer to a lower level of care unit.  Dr. Ross told us multiple times post-surgery how great Henry's surgery went and how well he is doing.  Again, such a relief that they did a very complex and pretty rare procedure and that it was 'textbook".

Below is Henry's nurse, Cassandra, and the RT trying to sort out issues with the ventilator. To the right is a closer shot of Henry. His chest, unlike last time, is closed under the skin.  He is a little bit swollen, but this will increase over the coming hours until he starts to diurese. It may be hard to tell with all the tubes and bandages, but Henry looks absolutely great.

After a total of 2 hours sleep over the past two nights, we hope tonight will bring a bit of much needed sleep.  We are so proud of Henry and so thankful he is much more than ok.  Thank you all for all your messages and support and the visits from Ione and Lisa. It means a lot to our family and it helps us more than you can know.