yesterday's surgery update

They took Grace back for surgery at 3:30pm and didn't update us until 6:oopm---again these three hours seemed like an eternity, but we got through it. Both the surgeon and the plastic surgeon came out to talk to us about how things went.



Grace did well in the operating room, she didn't need and extra blood or fluids, but because her chest is so small, there still wasn't much room to close her chest comfortably--so what the surgeons decided to do was cut some of the muscle in her ribs to "let it out" a little and then they wrapped wires around the breast bone and attached medical scissors to the wires and then thread the scissors up with a wire elastic tube that was connected to the top of the heater above her little bassinet. Confused yet? We were, until we actually saw what the doctors were describing. It was a very overwhelming sight that no one should see their 12 day old daughter go through. This was done to stretch out the sternum and relieve pressure on her heart.





In addition to this apparatus, Gracie is on a paralytic to keep her completely still and immobile, she can't blink or even attempt to breathe on her own---they don't want to risk her moving and hurting herself more or disturbing the stretching process. The doctors are optimistic that everything will stretch sufficiently by Monday, when they will attempt to allow the breast bone down and finish replacing her muscles over her bone and closing the skin again.





She is very sick and critical--but she is critically stable. Her numbers are staying within the desired parameters and she is taking small baby steps forward. So we are hoping that she will continue progressing forward and be able to move on with the next steps in her recovery.





Jason and I debated whether we should post pictures of how Grace looks right now and have decided that we will. Please be cautious as the sight is something you might not be able to tolerate as well as you may want.