Heart Baby

Brody had his surgery. Nothing was quite as advertised.

The 3-4 day recovery time will not happen.  Yesterday was day 4 and we remain in the ICU.
We were told that there was a thin membrane near his mitral valve.  It was not thin.  It was thick and built like an outer heart wall.
We were told that there was a vein on the wrong side.  Rather, he had a total anomolous venous return and so much more had to be rerouted.
We were told that there were holes in his septum.  Well, that part was right.  And thank God for them.  Without them, he would never have lived to be born.
We were told he had valve stenosis.  He had no valve stenosis. It simply appeared that way because the sheer volume that vessel was forced to handle was far too much.
We were told that his heart was actually fine and that it'd be at least a year before we saw anything like true enlargement.  On the day of surgery, his heart was enormous by even the cardiologists standards.

But my baby is persevering.

We are nearly off his pacemaker.  His heart rhythms have synced--finally-- and show the full range of activity to include his p-waves.  They have it set only to kick in if his heart goes very, very low.  We are testing to see how this affects him and how he manages.  His rate is lower than the norm for his age. However, his heart has had to work much harder for his whole short life and had managed to do so on an "average" heart rate.  Perhaps a healthy one for him is lower.

Being off the pacemaker means being let out of ICU.  I pray to God that day is soon.

Everything else is going well so far.  There was a minor bleeding issue that was brought under control and today he's had stomach issues from the gunk that built up in his throat due to ventilator irritation.

I am blessed.

Yet politically minded "friends" and family send information about protecting the rights of women to abort fetuses that are defective.  I find this not only the height of insensitivity, but extremely repulsive to think that I would want to be given such propaganda. That I would rather have my Brody dead than recovering beautifully from corrective surgery.