Surgery pre op day!

Today was full of pre op appointments for Kate's Glenn tomorrow. First we had weight check, height check, EKG and overall health check. Then we were off to the lab for blood draws. Kate was not a fan of the EKG or blood draw at all. Then it was off to the pharmacy for nose ointment. Consulted with the anesthesia team and then met with the surgeon.

Dr. Purmet (surgeon) chuckled at my odd request. I asked if there was a intact chunk of Kate's stent, could I please have it. I want to see the little thing that kept her alive for five months haha. He said he would certainly save it if it's big enough :)

Kate will be in surgery for about five hours. They don't anticipate needing to stop her heart this time, so that is s relief! She will still need to go on the heart lung machine and get blood transfusion like last time.

This surgery will reroute upper body blood flow to take blue blood directly to her lungs for oxygen. He will also be patching her pulmonary artery to make it larger as it is too small right now. They might use a synthetic patch, a patch of cow heart tissue or a portion of her heart sack for the patch, depending on how much she needs.

I also learned that they used wire to wire her breastbone back together after her first surgery and it will always be wired together. Dr. Purmet will also look at correcting one of the drain hole sites from her first surgery that has a small herniation.

Now we are all set. Tonight and tomorrow morning we will have to apply antibacterial ointment to Kate's nostrils to minimize risk of infection. We also get to wash her several times with antimicrobial wash. Fun stuff! She stops eating at 7am and stops getting glucose water at 9am.

Now I get to go home and pack for the stay. Luckily the ICU has private rooms now, however, we hope to move to the floor and get out of the hospital asap!

Kate and Dr. Purmet