The next few hours

Well, like I said, Payton made it through surgery. We're waiting for her to come up to the unit - probably another hour. We're still not out of the woods. I had written in a previous blog about the thickening at the base of her artery in her heart - it turns out her aortic valve was not so great either. What they ended up doing was opening the hole in between her ventricles (VSD) so that she'll function on one ventricle and mixed blood (oxygenated/nonoxygenated) will be pumped to her body through her pulmonary artery. Her oxygenation will not be as good, and she'll get a little blue if she gets real upset/excited. She'll be on the heart/lung machine as long as she needs for her right ventricle to get stronger to get the blood to her body (at this point her left ventricle is stronger from working to get the blood through her aorta. The nurse said people can be on the heart/lung machine for 2 days or 2 weeks and both are normal. We're praying for a quick recovery, but Payton is always full of "surprises." Also, as far as getting a veinus line in, they ended up putting a port right near her heart which can be there for several days but obviously not for the long haul. That'll be something to pray for that they're able to find a vein at some point. Her chest is also open and will be until the swelling goes down and she's able to tolerate it being closed. So now we just wait, and for the immediate future take it hour by hour.