Details of pre-op and surgery

We'll head up to Denver in just a few hours and will spend a good part of the day at the hospital although Landon will not be admitted yet.

Here are the appointments we'll have tomorrow:

Landon will have:
- bloodwork done (ouchie)
- a chest x ray
- an appointment in the cardiac clinic for a check up

Gary and I will meet with:
- a nurse from the surgical team
- the anesthesiologist
- the surgeon

We'll stay at a hotel near the hospital tomorrow night so we can be close by for the day of surgery. The Ronald McDonald house is great, but you can't call to get a room until the day you need it so you don't know in advance if you'll be able to get in. After tomorrow night Gary and I may stay in a sleep room in the hospital while Landon is in the CICU (Cardiac Intensive Care Unit).

A lot of people have asked exactly what the surgery (called the Glenn operation) does. Since the right side of his heart is underdeveloped, this surgery will start the process of rerouting his blood so that it bypasses that underdeveloped side and eventually doesn't use it at all. In a normal heart the blood comes into the right atrium from the body to be oxygenated and then flows to the right ventricle where it is then pumped to the lungs for oxygen. This surgery will take the blood from the upper half of his body and has the vessel (Superior Vena Cava) flow directly to his lungs through the pulmonary artery instead of going through his heart. The Fontan surgery that he will have in a few years completes this process by rerouting the blood from the lower half of his body. They will also remove the shunt that they put in during the last surgery.

If that doesn't makes sense, this website provides a good explanation about the type of heart defect he has and the series of surgeries to repair it (this will be stage 2). Since this set of 3 surgeries has only been around for 25-30 years, whether they are a life-long solution is yet to be determined. It's possible that one day Landon will need a heart transplant but hopefully by then there will be even more knowledge and medical advancements to work to his advantage.

We will post at least once more today after pre op and likely several times on surgery day so check back for updates!