Surgery Update

Well, it was a long day for everyone. The great news though is that Benjamin is doing great. His vitals are great and though he looks sad, he's comfortable and feeling no pain. The picture to the left is him before the surgery...the blanket is holding his paci in place, it's not strangling him!

I know many of you are probably curious as to what exactly they did so I'll do my best to describe the surgery in common folk terms. They used his pulmonary artery to replace his aortic valve, and replaced his pulmonary artery with a cow vein. They did this because the artery is more on the outside of the heart so when it comes time to replace it in 1-2 years the surgery won't be as intricate. They also did it for other reasons, but they're more complicated so I won't try and type it out. They also repaired the interruption in his aortic arch. The last thing they did, which we weren't sure they would be able to do until they opened him up, was close the VSDs. This was great news to us that they were able to, because if they weren't able to do it, they would have placed a shunt in and he would have had to come back in 3-6 months and have another surgery to close it, allowing time for his heart and tissues to grow and get stronger, or something like that. Basically, now he'll have to have another surgery in 1-2 years to replace the vein instead of 3-6 months. What a blessing for him and for us!

Thanks for all the prayers today and make sure to keep them coming!