Vivienne's CDH Story: Day 17: Repaired!

Prepped for surgery with a super cute hospital gown!

Vivienne is repaired! We arrived at the hospital at 6:30am to spend some time with our sweet girl before the operation. The 7:30 start time quickly turned into 9:30, so we had a lot of time to wait around and stew in our emotions. I was a mess when it was time to leave the room. Logically I knew that she was in extremely capable hands, but it was still a lot to handle. The surgery lasted about two hours, and everything went extremely well.

Here's a rundown of what we learned after surgery:

- Vivienne's defect was very large (not surprising) and required a patch to close the hole (also not surprising). One side of the patch had to be attached to the ribs/chest wall, but she had a rim of diaphragm on the other side. Her surgeon said the chance of reherniation is about 3-4%.
- It turns out the the liver was down (very surprising). She had her stomach, small bowel, and spleen in her chest. The spleen was behind the heart, and they think that its presentation caused them to think the liver was up.
- She has a huge left lung (very surprising). Apparently her left lung grew just fine behind all of her organs. In fact, it's actually bigger than her right lung! We don't know how functional it is (and some of the tissue is damaged), but the fact that there is so much of it is really amazing. Viv's surgeon actually had to retract it during the surgery and told us that she's never had to do that before - and she's done a lot of CDH repairs.

Pre-op X-ray. The white area by the left lung (on your right) is Viv's bowel, stomach, etc. The white area on the right (your left) is her heart.

Post-op X-ray. Look at all of that left lung! The oval at the bottom of the lung is her patch. All of her organs are now where they should be. The heart will eventually move to its proper place on the left side.

Now that surgery is behind us we can focus on the recovery phase. The only potential setback would be an infection (a relatively low risk). The patch is a foreign object so there's always a chance that Viv's body could reject it. More than likely though she will be fine. The next few days may be a bit rocky as she recovers from surgery, but her vitals are still excellent and she's currently on minimal support. Her settings will continue to be weaned with the ultimate goal of extubation. Also, she will be given small amounts of breastmilk via a feeding tube after her bowels begin to function in the next few days. Finally, Dave and I will be able to hold her some time in the coming week (yay!!).

All of the doctors are extremely pleased and are very optimistic with regard to Viv's recovery. We are so thrilled and excited. Vivienne is the light of our lives, and we are truly thankful for every moment.

Post-surgery. She has a belly now! Her surgeon is known for her creative bandages and cuts each one out by hand. This one is a bunny and an orchid in honor of Easter.