surgery updates/time line...

We will be updating this throughout the day...

7:30am - Darla Jane was taken to the OR and we went to the parents waiting room.
8:50am - We were told that the incision had been made and the surgery started.
10:10am - We just got our first update call. Darla Jane is just about to go onto the heart lung machine and they are starting onto the aorta repair. The next check in should be around 11:30. It is going as planned.
11:25am The majority of the surgery has been done ( the aorta repairs) and her heart has started beating again on its own, that's a good thing. They should be getting closer to finishing in another hour.
12:30pm She made it!!! she's off the heart lung machine and her heart is back to doing all the work. The body is so amazing that it can handle something so invasive and act like it was nothing! All the xrays and "echos" and things look really good. They will leave her chest open for the next few days to allow for swelling and things and so they are just working on hooking up all the tubes and stopping any bleeding and things. she should be out in about an hour or so.
1:30 pm.  There was a little bit of bleeding, which is normal because of all the sutures they had to put in.  They Dr. has the bleeding stopped now though and is getting ready to put the chest tubes in that will help reduce the pressure around her heart for the next little while.  It's looking like we will be done in about 45 minutes.
2:15 We just spoke to the surgeon and everything went good. She should be back in her room around 3ish. He said her blood saturation look better now than they did before the surgery. That means once she has healed and can go home she will be able to run on her own steam! Then the next 2 surgeries will change some more of the plumbing to get her heart to circulate her blood even better. Right now her heart is still mixing the blood but not as much as before and each surgery will make it so it mixes it less and less until the 3^rd surgery will make it so that it doesn’t mix at all. The next couple of days will be the most critical to make sure everything continues to improve. Pics to come...

off to surgery.

Darla Jane only gets mad when the nurses and doctors are trying to do anything to her, so she was mad pre-op as they were getting her ready.  But here is the last picture I was able to take of her before they took her to surgery.

Here the anaesthesiologist is checking her lines and unattached the ones that she won't need for the next few days, like her lipids.

down the hallway she goes in her little bed and rack of iv connections.

little lady in a big bed.

here is where we said "see you later" and she went to the operating room and we went to the waiting room.

we love you little lady...stay strong!

the day before.

today we just spent a lot of time with our little miss.  we had just a little scare the night before, when her temp. went up to 103.  But it was just a short lived thing, only lasted an hour and there were no problems with her labs and the temp never came back.  So she rested up and prepared herself for surgery day.  We had visits from most of the doctors that will be helping her and signed a few consent forms for procedures.  We felt confident consenting to those, knowing that she will be in some of the best hands.  Nathan and I talked about how we thought we would be more anxious today than we were in previous days, but we were actually more calm.  I know that is was because of all the fasting and prayers that were in the behalf of our little one today.  Thank you all for your faith and support at this time. 

untill tomorrow, we just spent lots of time holding this little girl.  because of all that she will be connected to and with lines directly into her heart we won't be able to hold her for a while. 

visitors...

Although we are trying to limit her visitors to keep Darla Jane from getting sick, she has been able to have some of her family come and visit...

Geeg.                                                              Auntie.

Sisters and brother.

Grandpa Dave.

Grandma Julie.

Aunt Jenna.

And, of course, mom and dad. We sure love our little girl

this little lady is definitely getting a lot of love.

She was also visited by her poopa (Nathan's dad)... forgot to take a picture : (

notice something missing in these pictures?

The monitor that our little lady had on her head is now gone! Until Monday at least. There was one on her head and one on her back that were measuring brain and kidney function and they are constantly stable so they decided to give her a break from those until after the surgery. All the doctors and nurses are just amazed at how she is able to self-regulate so many things they usually have to try and regulate for these little ones. Answers to prayers. They are working. Thank you.

looking at her pictures.

Darla Jane was awake when i got to the hospital on Friday so she was actually able to see the pictures the girls sent. They were SO excited about that... Elli's is an all brown picture. She's sure Darla Jane's favorite color is brown.And Katelyn colored her a flamingo. The girls are really cute about sending her cards or pictures just about every day.

today i got a bow.

I was also able to meet with the Dr who will be performing the surgery on monday. Dr. Philip Burch. He talked to me about the procedure as well as lots of other information. And although I could not discribe most of it to you I know that I feel good about it and know that through the faith and prayers of hundreds of people his hands will be guided as he performs her operation.