Easton's Surgery Day

Tuesday July 26 th, we decided along with the information given by Dr. Chiou, that Carter would be the first of the twins to get the P.D.A. ligation (patent ductus arteriousus). So just a reader's digest version of a P.D.A.  but feel free to google it later.

P.D.A. is a congenital disorder in the heart wherein the babies artery duct fails to close after birth. Symptoms include increased work of breathing and poor weight gain.

So back to the story, Carter was lined up as a fill in on the surgeon's schedule, However the surgeon was delayed in the O.R. all afternoon. Carter was not to get the surgery Tuesday. Over night things changed, as many know at this stage things change hour by hour and minute by minute. When we had our Dr. consult on the morning of July 27 th, Dr. Chiou felt comfortable with the positive effect the dopamine was having on Carter's Blood pressure. So the next topic was to add Easton as a fill in on the surgeon's schedule. By the 4:30 care time (diaper changes and temperature checks) Dr. Du Bois the pediatric surgeon was in the room prepping the NICU to be his new O.R. Easton was on fair amount of machines this time and they felt it was critical leave him in the NICU. Dr. Du Bois felt confident in the operation and described how he would make a small incision on Easton's back, left side, move the precious little lung to the side and place a clamp around the duct, careful not to puncture the lung or heart. NO PROBLEM RIGHT, just like playing operation, which i sucked at and hoped he didn't.

By 5pm the anesthesiologist had let me lay my hands on my son, give him a kiss and off i was. As Lauren and I sat there, all we could do was pray and wonder. One hour and twenty minutes later we saw the first signs of completion as Carter's Nurse Theresa Came out and told us from her perspective everything went good for Easton and that the surgeon was charting and would talk to us soon. A few minutes later, Dr. Du Bois knocked on our family bedroom just three doors down from the room that our two precious boys were being so cautious watched over. "Surgery was a success and had gone as good as i could have hoped for." The next few hours will be critical (as if the past few days hadn't) as we needed to watch bleeding or gas buildup in his precious little body.

After the Doctor had left our room we couldn't help but thank our father in heaven who so graciously looked over or miracle just down the hall. As we entered the NICU we noticed our 5 day old son had received his first of many scars and hopefully his one and only TATTOO. the surgeon had taken the time to draw a little picture on his little bandage, something we found out later he enjoys doing as one of his little trademarks. The joy of knowing that the surgeon enjoyed his job and cared about his patients enough to take the time to give them a tattoo was overwhelming, we truly knew that someone was looking out for us and our family.

Today July 28th we were advised that over night Easton's stats had gotten better even though a PICC line has still not been established. Easton has been weaned off the Nitric oxide completely and will be taken off the oscillator and be place on a conventional ventilator  soon.