Seven week old babies!! We start the new week with another surgical procedure. Brendan had his atrial septostomy today. The whole family spent the day at the hospital with him and he finally went in to the cath lab at 2:30PM.

The doctors were eager to be able to get in to his heart and accurately measure the pressures across the chambers, arteries and veins. They can only guess at things by using echocardiograms. They did find that his pulmonary pressures fell within the desired range to go in to his Glenn procedure so the banding was tight enough. His mitral valve which connects the left atrium to the left ventricle does not fully open (a condition called mitral valve stenosis) but this was not causing as much back pressure in the left atrium as they had suspected.
By doing the septostomy today, they opened up the wall between the left and right atrium. It was 2mm in size and now it is measuring 9mm. This allows the blood to flow through the right side and through the tricuspid valve in to the left ventricle.
All this is to accomplish less back pressure in to the lungs and more blood flow to the rest of his body. It is pretty hard to explain without drawing pictures!

So over the next 24-48 hours, the goal for Brendan is to see better oxygen profusion to his organs and extremities and no desats when he is active or agitated. His heart should not have to work as hard. Then the next goal is to wean off of the oxygen entirely and breath 100% on his own with room air.

We were very excited to see that he came back to his room without the ventilator. They had no problem intubating and extubating during anesthesia. His numbers improved every minute he was back in the room.
The risks still are bleeding from the entry point in his leg and clotting. They give blood thinners to help prevent the clotting, but then the leg could bleed if not kept under pressure – but too much pressure could prevent circulation to his lower leg. It is a careful balancing act.

Trevor is a champion of support for his brother. He was extremely well behaved and we are grateful that we are all able to be there for Brendan without having to worry about Trevor staying home.

I am having a hard time keeping my eyes open so I am sure I left a lot out and rambled too much. We are all exhausted but we have made it over another hurdle and hopefully can get back to forward progress and get that baby home!

Brendan looked pretty good before surgery today. I held him for a good part of the morning.

The head of his bed is quite elevated and he rolled down the hill because his nest wasn’t in place!

Trevor has a cool new travel bed for camping in Brendan’s room all day. He slept well in it today.

Trevor sleeps best when there is noise and commotion. He was really relaxed today.

Brendan got to spend time in Dad’s arms for the first time today!

All of the boys together!

Trevor has a small problem with newborn size jammies – his long legs.

This is Brendan back from surgery. Every time we turn around, there is someone coming in and giving him gifts. Today he got a light up seahorse, another teddy bear and a book.

Trevor loves the swing and Brendan’s new seahorse.

I forgot to post this yesterday, we had to learn how to insert a nasogastric tube for feedings. We had to practice on this creepy looking doll. Before Brendan can come home, we each have to successfully take out and put in a feeding tube on him. Putting it in the doll was super easy, but the doll doesn’t stick out its lip and tremble its little chin, nor does it thrash and scream. I am not looking forward to putting Brendan through the practicing.

In other news, Gramma went to see her doctor when she got home and got new xrays. It turns out that she did indeed fracture a rib, they just missed it at the urgent care. She has a slow painful healing time ahead and just needs to be really careful.

Also Happy Birthday to Aunt Heather #2 today. Happy Birthday to Aunt Heather #1 on the 8th. Funny that their birthdays are close together too!