It Went Well!

I'm happy to tell you that Nathan's surgery went well! Praise God! His surgery was not an open heart surgery. Like I've mentioned, this is a 3 step process. They went through the side of his chest and put in two shunts. This will route more blood to his lungs thus increasing the oxygen his body gets. Since he was not getting a lot of blood flow through his pulmonary artery, it was smaller than it normally would have been. Now with the extra flow, they expect it to grow. Even though it was small, the surgeon said it was not too small. Yay!

I am in the room with him and there is a noticeable difference in his color. Although all the blueness he had is not completely gone, he does definitely look less blue. His toes actually look pink. He is on a breathing machine for now to see how he does and if all goes well, they will take it out tomorrow morning. Consequently, they are going to keep him sedated. The little guy has moved some and even tried to grab some of his tubing! He's a little feisty even while sedated! Our nurse said that once he realizes that he has some stamina to look out, he's going to be a madman! It is quite astonishing to realize that in his whole life he has never known what it's like to have energy. Praise God that he is getting what he needs so that he can be like other 3 year-old boys. They expect recovery to be 3-5 days.

Oh, the surgical nurse gave me what they used to make the shunt and I will post a picture of it when I charge my camera. Wow, this thing looks so simple and yet it is doing wonders. Eventually, in either the second or third surgery, they will clamp off these shunts. Right now it's just to get him better oxygen levels via better blood flow to the lungs and to grow his pulmonary artery. I think it might actually help his lung to grow too. The left one is smaller than the right since it hasn't had as much blood flowing to it.

In other news, Nathan will be having another MRI next week of his head to see how the abscess is doing. We are praying and hoping that the abscess is still shrinking so that he will not have to have another surgery to drain it. It's just so much for him and if he can avoid another brain surgery, we will be more than happy. I was so happy to see him looking better and then I remember the whole abscess thing and it makes me sad. One part getting better but there are still other issues. One day at a time I guess.

Thanks for all your prayers. We will keep you updated on how he does but so far so good and we are SO THANKFUL! God is GOOD!!!