The Big Day

Today is the big day - it is a great day for surgery. We are about to go see the star of the show. As we were sitting there last night (really this morning) we thought about how great it will be when he comes out of surgery and all the numbers are great and there are fewer alarms. How happy we are that even though I have had uneventful pregnancies & labor and deliveries that we weren't sucked in to the Montana trend of home births where this might not have gotten discovered. How grateful and fortunate we are for the incredible care and professionalism we have received from Dr. Harrop to St. Lukes to Community to Seattle Children's - wondering if the people will ever understand that what they are doing and have done for us and our baby Henry is so much more than "just doing their job" to us. We are so very grateful for our families near and far and for the friends and loved ones who have jumped in and helped with George, Emily, the B&B and us here. The phone calls, prayers, thoughts and well wishes, gifts of all sorts that have gotten us to this point after a week of not knowing what is next. We look forward to this next step knowing that we have so much support and love that we will have no problem getting through what we know will be challenging and rewarding as we make our way to bringing Henry home to meet all the incredible people in our lives. So much love goes out from us to all of you.
Love,
Debbie and Drew

Hello from daddy,
I want to give everyone the plan for the day. It is currently 5:00 am the moring of the surgery. We are stealing some more time of holding and talking Henry before the get him on his way. At around 7:30-8:00 they will give him the final things needed leading up to the surgery. At 8 am they will come and beging to administer the anestheia. He will be rolled away after that starts to kick in and will go staight to the Operating Room. In the room there will be a team of two surgeons, two anesthesiaologist, two cartiologist, and a pulmonary specialist that will do the echocardio sonigrams for the realtime pictures inside his chest cavity.
They told us not to be too hung up about how much time Henry is in the Operating room. There are may things that have to take place and all of the can take longer than they expect but that does not mean its any more dangerous or bad. The actual surgeon cut time is like 4-5 hours with several hours on either side for prep. We have been warned that when he comes out it will be very scary for us just because of all the new chest tubes and such. Henry will then be in recovery until he stable enough to move him to CICU which is the specialized PICU that deals only with cardiac cases. We will have a one on one cardiac nurse as Henry goes through the process of waking up. They told us to expect most of the day for all of this to take place. We will post any news we get on here shortly after we get is and are emotionally ready. I for one am ready to get to the other side of the surgery so we can get on with the recovery. Thank god they know what they have to do and it is something that they can fix. Debbie and I are way nerveous but it is funny Henry does not see the slightest bit nervous (I need what he's getting). Well I guess that is it for now. God bless this day. I can't wait for you all to meet the guy that needed all this attention. Thank each of you for your support.
Daddy