Updates......

She's still in surgery. It's been 5 hours...... I just got an update, it could be another 1 to 1 1/2 hours.... The surgeon was able to reconstruct her Glenn, but she's still not oxygenating well. SO, they are still working on her. She's off the heart and lung bypass machine (thank heavens!), and Dr Hawkins has decided to put in an additional shunt to see if he can get more blood to her lungs. They still have the ECMO machine on standby, but they really don't want to put her on it unless it is absolutely necessary. The nurse told me that ECMO might help her through tonight, but might not be the best solution in the long run, so they are trying all other options first. It's still an option though. Poor baby!! I truly trust Dr Hawkins, he is such a perfectionist, I know he will do whatever is best for my Elaina. I will update again when I know more, probably by just adding on to the end of this post.

1:40 am
Elaina is doing well, she is stable and should be back in the ICU in about half an hour. I am still waiting for Dr Hawkins to come and talk to me, but I was able to get a final update from the surgical nurse. They ended up doing a shunt, I'm not sure what kind, and it has stabilized her for now. Hopefully it is a permanent good thing. As of right now, she is NOT on ECMO, but it is still ordered just in case. Yay! Anyway, I probably won't post again until late tomorrow morning, so I wanted to just give a little bit of additional information. Thank you all for the prayers, love and concern. I know that I say this often, but I truly mean it!



2:30 am final update
Dr Hawkins just came and spoke with me. He told me that he was able to successfully reconstruct the Glenn and patch her Pulmonary Artery. Once she was off the heart/lung machine he was able to get the pressure in her Glenn down from 25 to 15. At that point her sats were still no good, so he attempted to do an axillary fistula procedure, which routes blood to the pulmonary artery from a large vein in the armpit. He tried both sides, but neither were successful, so he opted at that point to put in a new Gortex (he gave me a piece!) shunt. He called it a Central Shunt and connects from her Aorta to her main Pulmonary Artery. He said that it was successful, she's warming up and her saturations are between 75 and 80, right where he'd like them to be. BUT, her lungs are still very sick. He's not sure if she is going to be able to survive this, only time will tell. He hopes that what he's done is enough to keep her strong so that her lungs can heal, but she is still in extremely critical condition. The next 72 hours are critical and will pretty much determine her outcome.
Please continue praying for her. She needs a miracle. I need a miracle..... this little one is a tough fighter but I truly do have faith (as hard as it is) that she can survive this with the prayers of others.
Thank you all again.
Love,
Hollie