Another Big Hurdle

Tomorrow Anne Marie will have another surgery to finish (or partially finish) her abdominal repair. When they first repaired her diaphragm, not all of her abdominal organs were able to fit so the surgeon left some out in a silo until her abdomen stretched a little. Tomorrow at around noon the surgeon will try to put her stomach back in and close her abdomen. No one knows if everything will be able to fit, so this may require several steps and additional surgeries. We won't know exactly what they can do until they get into the operating room tomorrow. When Anne Marie had her initial repair they turned her ICU room into an operating room. Tomorrow she will be transported down to the second-floor operating room for surgery. Of course, today the doctors warned us of the many possible complications -- pneumothorax, putting more pressure on her lungs, or too much stress on her heart, to name just a few. Even the transport from the twelfth floor to the second floor carries risks.

We are encouraged that since she came off ECMO last week, progress has been made in weaning her off the oscillating vent. Her right lung has expanded a little so we are happy about that. She still is on CVVH (which is like dialysis only it is continuous); the doctors say this is a "nagging concern" and that they would really like to see some output from her kidneys.

Here's a little clip from this afternoon of Anne Marie making eyes at her dad.