"Live" surgery updates post

This post will be constantly updated in the next few hours to keep all of you updated. We'll use this post to broadcast to all who are listening and supporting us so greatly.

9:00 - Eli has entered into surgery. During our last visit with him, he looked better than he ever
had. His nurse commented that his blood/gas numbers look better today than they have. We are extremely impressed with every meeting we've had with his surgeon, Dr. MacDonald. He's so unbelievably thorough in all his details and communication. I've tried to pry into his personal life to get a feel for the man, and not the doctor. He enjoys running. Today, I asked him if he ran this morning. "No, I swam today," he smiled.

We're going to go get some breakfast now.

11:00 - We received the first of several phone updates from the nurse inside the OR with Eli. He's doing very well. We had already been informed that ultrasounds and other imaging work very well, but there's no substitute to actually seeing the heart and anatomy with your own eyes. Because of this, we had to acknowledge the possibility that the full-blown Norwood procedure may still be necessary.

We've just been informed this is not the case, and everything is as they thought, from the ultrasounds. They will continue the surgery as planned. Pulmonary band, atrial septostomy, and bebuild of the primary aorta.

Thank you for following along and walking this with us.

2:00 - We got another call. Everything is going well. Eli is officially "on the machine" and they have begun the restructure of the heart. A friend took us out to lunch, and we're feeling very good. The sun is shining outside, the weather is beautiful. We're still wary for the rest of the surgery, and the coming weeks. For now, it's nice to hear positive news for a change.

3:15 - I've been working on getting some photography software on this laptop all morning. I finally made my way through a couple photos. These photos are the most recent photos of Eli, just before we sent him off.




3:30 - "Just letting you know everything's still just fine." How nice for them to take the time to tell us something so simple.

7:15 - "We're finishing up. We'll see you in the waiting room in a few minutes."

7:30 - Eli was transported from surgery to his room. We are waiting. These are some of the longest minutes of our lives.

8:30 - "He did well," says Dr. MacDonald. Most things were better than expected, and there were a couple minor complications. "He's on expected, normal amounts of all the normal medicines for someone in this stage."

We'll post more details as we gather the energy to do so. Thank you for so much support, once again. We couldn't do this alone.