Surgery Day!

Well, today was an eventful day!  It started off with a planned heart surgery for Erin, and ended with an emergency bowel surgery for Will!

Both Erin and Will have a medium PDA, but it was necessary to have Erin’s closed.  We have had this planned since Monday, we just haven’t told many people.

“A PDA (patent ductus arteriosus) ligation is a corrective surgical procedure for children whose ductus arteriosus did not close after birth. 

Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) is a condition in which a blood vessel called the ductus arteriosus fails to close normally in an infant soon after birth. (The word "patent" means open.)

The condition leads to abnormal blood flow between the aorta and pulmonary artery, two major blood vessels that carry blood from the heart.”

Erin’s surgery went great and she is resting comfortably. Erin’s surgeon was the chief cardiac surgeon for the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital.  The surgery took about one hour and left her with two micro titanium staples closing the PDA and a cute little scar on her left side. Those of you who want to see a PDA closed here is a link to a very informative but graphic YouTube Video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOj6K_BoIAc

Will’s surgery on the other hand was completely unplanned!  We got to the hospital about an hour early for Erin’s surgery when the nurse got a phone call from the Dr. and asked us to come to Will’s room.  There we were informed that Will had air in his belly (knowing that Will didn’t have Mexican the night before we knew it might be a problem).  We were then walked through possible scenarios about why the air might be there and asked to sign a consent form for exploratory surgery.

It turns out that Will had a perforated bowel.  It was a 1.5 cm section of bowel near the Ilium that had to be removed.  Both ends of the bowel are now externalized through the skin.  Will, will have a collection system similar to a colostomy bag for adults but for ultra preemies. Between 6 and 8 weeks from now Will, will have another surgery to reattach the two ends of bowel and will be reinserted into his abdomen.

Will is also doing great now after the surgery!  His color is pink, and he is resting comfortably. Will gets morphine every four hours for pain and is expected to do great! Will’s surgeon was actually the president of the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital! 

So now after 9 hours in the hospital Julie and I have two kids with cute little 1 ½ inch scars on their bellies!  We then went to the BOB had a nice dinner and a couple drinks to celebrate the successful surgeries!  Thank you to all of our friends and family for all the prayers, support and thoughts!