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| Third Surgery | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The six months between the second and third surgery seemed to fly by. Before we knew it, Matt turned one, and it was time to head back to Delaware for his third and final surgery. He had been doing well and seemed so "normal" that it was hard to think about him going through yet another surgery, but we just held onto the fact that it was the last one, and he was so young, he would never remember it. We flew to Delaware on Sunday, September 24th, and on Monday he had his pre-surgery cath. Dr. Murdison had to put in a couple coils to close off some colateral arteries that had grown, but everything else went fine. Matt was awake and playing |
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| that evening. The next morning he had his Fontan surgery. It was really hard to turn him over to the anethesiologist this time! The nurses said they heard my sigh from the OR doors. Dr. Norwood was again Matt's surgeon. He is simply the best and so very quick. We handed Matt over at 7:45 a.m., he was out of surgery at 9:55 a.m. and off of the ventilator at 11:45 a.m. It was so hard to see him in the CICU with all of the tubes and chest wound again. That night he heard our voices and got very upset, so we had to leave. Now, THAT was hard, but a few minutes later when we called, he had settled right back down, so it was the best thing for him. The following day around noon, he was brought to our room! He was doing well but was so sore and still insisted on being held. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Starting to feel better, but sitll on the oxygen | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Matt slowly started to be less sore but was still miserable because he was retaining some fluid. Around the third day post-op, he developed a small plureal effusion over one lung and he still wasn't releasing much fluid. (Plureal effusions are a common complication with the Fontan surgery.) He began receiving heavy duty diuretics for a couple of days, which solved the problem. He had been on oxygen, but finally was able to come off of it. Now he began to act more like himself and was much less grumpy. He even stopped screaming at the medical personnel every time they walked in the door!! It was such a joy to have our baby back to himself again. We were released from the hospital, but Dr. Murdison wanted to check him in a few days before we went home, so once again we stayed at the Ronald McDonald |
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| Matt with one of the nurses (Tina). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| House across the street from the hospital. That is such a nice place with beautiful rooms and a friendly, helpful staff. On Monday, Oct. 9th, Dr. Murdison gave Matt the okay to return home. We had been gone a total of 16 days...our longest stay. We were so glad to get home and see our other two children!! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Matthew's Doctors... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (who are heros in our eyes) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Dr. Norwood (posing with Josh and Matt), our pediactric cardiothoraxic surgeon (try to say THAT 5 times fast....) |
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| Dr. Murdison, our cardiologist in Delaware |
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| Dr. Hixon, our cardiologist in Louisiana | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Home | Birth and Diagnosis | First Surgery | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Second Sugery | Favorite Sites and Resources | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Updates | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Photo Album | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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