Breckin's First Heart Surgery

     Breckin had her first heart surgery last Tuesday evening on December 9th, just 6 days after being born. The cardiac surgeon, Dr. Knott-Craig was thinking it would be two to three weeks before she needed it, but she was showing that she was over circulating too much and was ready for it sooner. One of the conditions that Breckin has is called double outlet right ventricle which causes too much blood to be circulated to the lungs. This causes her to work too hard to breathe. So, at about 4:30 that evening, we walked with our little girl to the surgical floor, kissed her goodbye, and handed her off to strangers. It was one of the scariest moments in my life. The thing I kept thinking was, how in the world am I going to be able to do this two to three more times?
     The surgery only took a couple hours and Dr. Knott-Craig was so pleased with the outcome. He said the pulmonary band they put in place was a perfect fit. It was just loose enough where she could grow into it, but not too tight where it wouldn't last long. He also said she only lost about two teaspoons of blood so she didn't need to receive any blood.
     We transferred to the cardiac ICU that evening where our sweet girl was lying in her bed hooked up to all kinds of monitors and intubated to help her breathe. Her nurse, Morris, would be taking care of her all evening. He was so great to explain everything that was going on and give information about every piece of equipment she was hooked up to. He stayed in her room with us that evening and watched her every move. It was a little awkward getting up to pump every three hours with a strange man in my room, but I was glad he was there. The next morning, he said the night went great with no complications. He only gave her one dose of morphine, and she never required anything but a dose of Tylenol the next day.
     I am truly amazed at what my sweet girl has already gone through since being here. Besides having heart surgery, she has had more needle sticks than I can count, multiple tubes in her nose and throat, several IV lines inserted, and she even suffered a terrible wound on her ankle from a blister that opened up. She has been such a trooper and I am humbled by her strength. All of the nurses comment on how strong she is, and I am so grateful for that.
     Since her surgery, she has done so well from a cardiac standpoint. She was intubated for about 36 hours after surgery because she was just unable to wake up and breathe on her own. After that, however, she was back to her old self of being feisty and demanding :) The biggest hurdle that we have faced since surgery has been her not eating. The next three days after being extubated were just awful. She was hardly taking anything by bottle, and not seeming to make any progress from one day to the next. I was feeling so hopeless and sad about this. I know this is our last task before getting to go home. She has to be eating!
     Today, thanks to our wonderful speech therapist Amy Clare, we had a breakthrough! At her morning feeding, she noticed that Breckin looked like she was aspirating her milk. She worked quickly and within 20 minutes, we had her downstairs doing what's called a modified barium swallow. They took an x-ray of her being fed to see if she was aspirating the breast milk. After a few swallows, they saw that she was aspirating. To fix this problem, they thickened her milk with stuff called nectar to prevent it from going down her trachea. The first feeding with the thickened milk seemed to go okay. Amy Clare fed her and said she was doing great coordinating her suck, swallow, breathe actions. She only took about 7cc at that feeding, but Amy Clare was very pleased with this. At her next feeding, I was on my own. We had a nipple that had been cut at the top to make the hole larger to try to help Breckin get more milk. At this feeding, she was much more interested in eating and she ended up taking 17cc-more than half of what she took at her last feed! I was definitely one proud mama!
     I am so thankful for everyone's prayers and I can totally see God doing amazing things in Breckin's life. She has been in this world not even two weeks and already she is making a lasting impact on so many people. She has more strength already than I imagine I ever will. It's strange even saying this but despite all of her health problems, God has truly blessed her. She is already such a blessing to me and I cannot wait to get her home and live with her as a family of four.


Love,
Brooke

   Getting her barium swallow test

Right after her heart surgery