Surgery Date

I had good intentions of coming home this morning after running some errands and deep clean our house.

Then, I got a phone call from the cardiologists office. She informed me that Jadyn was officially in the schedule book. Now, my mind is a mess. The thought of this next surgery stresses me out.

She is terrified of doctors and I can't promise her this wont hurt, like I have her check-up appointments.

She is scheduled for Wednesday July 14, 2010 for a heart cath. this is a relatively fast procedure, but she does have to be sedated. More than likely she will be dis-charged the same day.

We will then return 2 days later, on Friday July 16, 2010 at 6 am for her heart surgery. That is only 9 weeks away! They will be doing a procedure called the Fontan. This procedure re-routes the inferior vena cava to the pulmonary artery.

For those of you that are new to our blog or don't remember her condition. Jadyn was born with transposition of the great arteries, meanings, just as it says, her main 2 arteries are backwards.

She also has a VSD which stands for Ventricular Septa defect. This is a hole in the heart, Jadyn's VSD is very large, too large to close and expect her heart to function properly. This is the reason that she is having this 2 stage surgery.

If it were just the TGA, the Doctors could have reversed that. I should say, if she were born in the USA, they could have done the reversal surgery. They don't perform reversal surgeries in China.

The fact that Jadyn has a VSD is a huge blessing, she would have died soon after birth had she not had that defect. This hole allowed her blue and red blood to mix and be oxygenated.

This surgery will complete the repair that her heart needs for her to live a healthy, happy life.

To give you an idea of how low her oxygen level was, when we came home from China we took her to the pediatric cardiologist who reviewed her referral file for us. (we just love him, he has been awesome to Jadyn and our family) Her oxygen saturation levels were in the low to mid 70's. Even dipping to the 60's when she would cry. Yours and mine are in the high 90's. After her Glenn surgery her levels were in the mid to high 80's, where they are today. After her Fontan surgery, she will be in the mid to high 90's.
She gets out of breath pretty fast when she runs or jumps, this will improve greatly and so will the blue-ish lips.

So even though I am very stressed for her, she will feel like a "normal" child once this is over. She will be able to run and play like every other 3 year old.

Here is a picture of the 2 stage surgery, Jadyn had the Glenn done on September 3, 2009


Ames and I have learned more about the human heart this last year than we thought possible. I remember after Jadyn's first surgery, Ames asked the surgeon a question and his first response was " wow, you have done your homework". I have to agree, we have.