The Day Of

I'm just going to keep editing this post for updates today. Keep checking back.

6:00 AM - Arrived at Shands. Ginny was sleeping peacefully. She got a little cranky around 3:00 am, but only because they had stopped feeding her at midnight and switched to IV fluids. She woke up around 6:30 and was fussy, but not too bad. They let us stay with her through shift change.

8:05 AM - Rode with the anesthesia team and Ginny in the elevator to the second floor, then came back to the NICU to pick up all of Ginny's stuff. The entire team in the NICU was sad to see Ginny go, but happy that she is one step closer to going home.

11:20 AM - Just received word from the hospital regarding Ginny. She went under anesthesia and onto the bypass without any problems. Dr. Bleiweis has fixed the PDA and is now beginning her correction - as Dr. Pitkin described it "the meat of the operation." Not sure about that choice of words, but American is his second language, so no worries.

2:10 PM - While visiting the Ronald McDonald House of North Central Florida, we got a call from the hospital regarding Ginny. Her correction is complete and they have begun to wean her off the heart-lung bypass machine. So far, everything is looking good. They have asked us to be available to speak to Dr. Bleiweis at 3 pm.

4:29 PM - In the Ronald McDonald Family Room on the 10th floor of Shands. We just received a call that Ginny is about to be wheeled upstairs to the PICU. Dr. Bleiweis will be coming to chat with us shortly. We were told it should be about an hour before we can see her, but we're prepared to wait two.

5:15 PM - Dr. Bleiweis came and talked to us about Ginny's surgery. She has been moved up to the PICU and they are cleaning her up and getting settled so we can see her. Her correction was a success, but she did have an episode of pulmonary hypertension that gave the team a pretty good scare. She is back on nitric oxide at a higher dose than she was before (40 ppm) but they will begin weaning her down today. She should be down to 20 ppm by late tonight. We should be allowed to see her shortly.

7:53 PM - This will be my last post of the evening. Ginny is doing well. She is on the ventilator again receiving 75% oxygen and 40 ppm nitric oxide. She has been heavily sedated, so she does not move or open her eyes. She has 13 IV pumps pushing 7 different medications and fluid nourishment. She has a chest tube, a central line, a tube to monitor her left atrial pressure, and an external pacemaker. She has a large gauze bandage in the middle of her chest covering the sterile gore-tex fabric, which in turn covers her open chest. It is not a pretty picture, so I won't be posting any more photos for a while. Depending on the speed of her recovery, a lot of the apparatus will be taken away starting in the next couple days. Surprisingly, Rachel and I are less stressed-out than we expected. We've had dinner and are going to try to just relax with Ginny for the rest of the night. She's had a difficult but productive day. We are hoping she has a quiet and uneventful night. Thank you everyone for your prayers and support. Ginny is feeling the love.