Good things come in small packages

Jenna right after surgery

Jenna about 24 hours after surgery

Hello everyone,

Jenny here. Just wanted to drop a note about Miss Jenna. First I want to say thank to everyone for your concern for me, I am feeling much better now. The stomach virus is awful to have and do not wish it on my worst enemy. It was so hard not being able to be here for babygirl on surgery day. I am so glad that things went well.

I came over to see her finally today around noon. When I arrived her surgeon, Dr. E. was here and I was able to speak with him about surgery. He showed us images from her last angiogram in August so that we could see exactly the artery that he worked on yesterday. The artery that he re-routed was a collateral,(which typically does not grow), but it had native portions(which means it has the potential to grow) which is a good thing. It has to potential to also get smaller, but we have never had this option with her arteries. We were thrilled to hear this. The artery was attached to an artery that her cath cardiologist has stented previously; therefore, he can go in later for caths and get to narrowed areas that he was not able to before. I asked him about the right side artery, the option for surgery down the road and he said at this point it is not a gain for her, the surgery would be too much stress. However, she will need her conduit(valve) in her heart replaced at some point, so that may be something to look at doing then. Since this surgery went well and he feels was successful, she has further options now. There is potential to get to areas to help lower her pressures in her heart, down the road. He said that at this point she is in a VERY good place. He is very pleased with the outcome, he was expecting lots of issues and she once again, proved him otherwise. He said that if she continues doing as well as she is, she could possibly go home as early as Friday! Amazing, I am a little nervous!

Today, she has done well. She is still in pain, which is to be expected. She has been quite the little grump because of it, but I would be too. They have given her tylenol, Morphine a couple of times, and she is scheduled for Toradol right now. They feel that once she goes home that she should just need Ibuprofen, but they will probably send her with the script Tylenol with Codeine too. They went ahead and pulled out one of her IV lines, chest tube, and foley catheter too. She is just sailing right along! The docs are little leary of that term-considering her history. Last night they restarted her feeding regimen through her belly, 20ml/hour(normal 60) and she tolerated it fine. She has also managed to go back to her norm for her vent settings, except she has needed to be on some oxygen. This evening we took her off pressure support on the vent and just put her cap(speaking valve) on with oxygen and she has done well on that for a couple hours now. Tonight they will increase her feeds again and get her back to her normal by tomorrow night. During rounds this evening I expressed concern about her pain control and feeds. Justin and I would prefer doing her feeds at her normal rate for a couple of nights before going home. They said that this is fine, they won't kick us out, when we are ready we will go. Since she is moving so fast they will most likely discharge us from here too. We are just so happy with her progress, it is amazing!

This evening she has started to perk up some, which is so good to see. She is talking again, telling everyone what to do, smiling. Also she danced a little to her My Little Pony movie. She is so funny. Hopefully this evening will continue to go well, and also the next few days. I cannot express how thrilled I am at how well she is doing.

We are hoping that she continues on her way. We would like to thank everyone for their kind words, thoughts and prayers for babygirl. We cannot thank everyone enough for their cares and concerns. We will keep everyone posted on her status and will update tomorrow.

Sincerely,

Jenny, Justin and Jenna