5:48pm: They have been able to further wean Reid on his oxygen. His 02 is down to 40% and his breath per minute is down to 42. Post-op xray supposedly looked better than it did pre-op (less mucus). Our little rock star is hanging in there...
3:45pm: Sorry for the delay in getting this blog out there, but as you can imagine, today has been a long, hectic day for us. Without wasting anymore time, I will say that Reid has passed his surgery with flying colors. The surgeons did have a few obstacles to cross with his arterial line and ended up having to 'dissect' his artery in his left arm so that they could get the line in. What this means is that they made a very small incision into the artery to get a visual on where they had to insert the line. I don't think this is all too common, but going back to my point I probably made a week ago, his arms and legs have been abused over the past 4 months. In addition to the arterial line, they had to put a larger ET tube down his throat for his ventialator. The one that he had was a little too small for this body size and he was having some air escape when the machine was taking the breaths for him.
After they got everything taken care of and under control, the surgery went fairly normal. One of the first things they have to do once they entered through his ribs was to deflate the left lung. They do this so that they can see the heart, but in Reid's condition, he didn't like his lung being messed with and started to de-sat into the upper 70s. They quickly inflated his lung and his saturations went right back up, so they ended up intermittently deflating his lung, doing a little work and then inflating it back to normal and repeated this process until they were done with surgery. This took them a little longer than normal, but it worked and they were able to place a small titanium clamp on his ductus arteriosus. His heart and lungs appeared to be functioning as normal and they sewed him back up. We had a quick chat with the surgeon in the waiting room to let us know how everything worked out - virtually no bleeding and no chest tube needed. We then walked back to the NICU where we were expecting for Reid to be and he wasn't back yet. Waiting another couple of minutes, here came Reid rolling down the hallway... About 20 minutes later, we were able to go into the NICU and check him out. His incision is about an inch and half long and starts in the middle of his side under his arm and works its way towards his back near his shoulder blade. It is probably a little bigger than what we expected it to be, but right now, nothing matters --- just make him a healthy baby!!! His oxygen settings were at 100% and a breath per minute rate of 45 and after about an hour, he was already down to 45% oxygen (only 10% more than pre-op). So, initially, it looks like everything went as planned. He is now in the "honeymoon" period where things seem to be going OK, but from what we hear, he has 12-18 hours of good/normal behavior before they typically take a step backwards. In this sense, it may be extra respiratory help needed or maybe high blood pressure. His body needs to get used to having normal blood flow to the lungs and this can sometimes take a toll on their body. Typically after 2 days, they will start to rebound. However, knowing that Reid doesn't know how to follow the norm, we may be in for a fun ride.
Reid will stay heavily sedated and medicated for a couple days and then they will start to wean the nurcuron and morphine. Partial feeds may come back into the picture and if he is up to it, he might have his double hernia repair early next week. It is so hard to even start thinking about the next surgery after today, but it is the reason we are at Egleston and the sooner we get these things checked off our list, the sooner we make it back to Cobb Hospital, and eventually back home.
We have received so many emails, text messages and phone calls over the past few days from friends of yesteryear and friends of today and I can't say enough how blessed we are to have the family and friends that we have. We are very loved people and appreciate everything that everyone has done to help us through these tough times.
Today is a deep sigh of relief for the Elley family. :)
10:45am: Just received a call from the nurse in the operating room. They had some troubles getting an arterial line in that they needed for surgery as they needed to closely monitor his blood pressure. They are just now starting surgery and should be another 45-60 minutes before we hear any more news.
9:45am: The doctors and anesthesiologist came into Reid's room around 8:30 to start getting ready for his transport to surgery. When it was all said and done and when he was in his transport isolette, they had a train of equipment and machines that marched through the NICU, down several hallways, up an elevator and into the cold OR. If you think that the NICU is sterile and stressful, take a quick peek into the OR staging room. When we saw Reid wheeled into his room, another family was rushing into the OR where their newborn baby (born today) was undergoing a massive emergency heart surgery that was to last 6 to 7 hours and unsure of survival. It quickly puts things into perspective about the seriousness of what kids are going through while at this hospital. 
We are now sitting in the waiting room anxiously waiting to hear our name called to hear the good news. I will post again when we hear something. Thank you all for your continued prayers!Reid had another good night last night. They lowered his O2 down to 35 and further weaned the pressure on the vent (PIP set to 22 -- was at 24). His PEEP was at 7. We know that those settings are going to be short lived and are expecting him to be on heavy respiratory support in the next day or two. We are just hoping that with the progress that he has made over the past 4 days that it will do well for him.
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