Our Lil' Hero: Surgery Update

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Surgery Update

Mason's surgery went pretty good last night. It took about 2 hours, they had t0 completely re-open his chest and cleaned him out with 2 liters of antibiotic then vacuumed it all out. Dr. Burch felt good about how it went and that they got all the infection out. The Dr said they only get about 4-5 sternal infections a year so Lucky Mason! Although I'm grateful it wasn't some other things these Hypoplast Left heart babies could go through. They were pretty worried he would be sepsis but so far so good on that. He stayed the night in the CICU but is now back on surgical. He has a high fever still so they are watching that. We will hopefully come home Wednesday or Thursday. He will come home with a Picc (sp?) Line for 6 weeks of antibiotics so I will get to learn another new thing!

3 comments:

Heather K. said...: Interesting...I didn't know that's how they would clean the infection out but I'm glad it's over with and the surgery went well. I'm glad he's on surgical so you can be there with him all the time.

I'm glad that you will be able to bring him home with the picc line. I'm assuming you will just administer the meds through it yourself? Praying for the best for Mason and all of you! :); February 12, 2011 at 3:20 PM
Peyton said...: Sorry to hear about the infection but glad they figured out what is going on. Hope you are all home together soon!; February 12, 2011 at 4:53 PM
Kirsha said...: Mollie,

You and your little man are the strongest people I know! We all can learn a lot from you and the strength that you are showing through all this!!! Who said you needed to go to school to be a nurse???? After you are done with all this you should have your licence for sure! keep your chin up and I am thinking about you guys!; February 12, 2011 at 7:31 PM

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A little about Mason

This is a journey through Hypoplasic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS). Mason was born on October 1, 2010 as what we thought was a healthy normal baby boy. At 3 weeks old we found out when he was life flighted to Primary Children's Medical Center that he was born with an Unbalanced AV Canal Defect that caused him to have Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. He also was diagnosed with 2 Large ASD's a VSD, a CoArch of the Aorta, and a small leaky Mitral Valve. He had his first open heart surgery, the Norwood, in the end of October 2010. After surgery his chest was left open and they surgically closed it a few days later after the swelling went down. He had his second open heart surgery, the Glenn, in January 2011. He did great with recovery and got discharged 1 week later. We had him home for 1 day then he was rushed back to the hospital where they found he had a sternal infection and had to open him back up and wash out all the infection and he had a picc line placed for 6 weeks for antibiotics. He had a couple of heart caths during that time, and echo every 3-6 months, and eye surgery.
In February 2013 we sent his records to Boston to explore different surgical options for him. We found out he was a candidate for a surgery called the Staged Left Ventricle Recruitment to the BiVent. With this surgery it would grow his left ventricle to normal size and then give him normal circulation to hopefully avoid him having to have a heart transplant. (if we didn't go this route we have been told with his anatomy he would need a transplant in his teens). With the help of friends, family, and strangers we went to Boston where he had the first of hopefully only 2 surgeries. He had his 3rd open heart surgery in June and right now his heart is growing and conditioning to be able to handle the load of the work that a normal heart does. He is due to have his 4th open heart surgery in the first of 2014.