Day 9 - Second post-birth operation

We had a lovely morning of cuddles with Jessica as we prepared for her surgery. She was wide awake and really looking at us both which made for some very precious moments.

One of the hospital chaplains came in to pray with us about the surgery as we waited for the anaesthetist to arrive and take Jessica upstairs to theatres. Jessica was quite settled as we waited – it was mummy and daddy who were quite anxious about it all.

We were told to expect not to hear anything for at least a couple of hours. Louise had a bit of a heart-stopping moment when her phone rang with what was clearly a hospital phone number just over an hour after Jessica had gone upstairs – thankfully, it turned out to be one of the midwives from Princess Anne Hospital checking to see if she was okay.

After a few hours, we finally had the call we were waiting for – Jessica had got through her surgery and was fine. The cardiologist came to talk to us whilst Jessica was being transferred from theatres back to PICU – they had managed to put a stent into the ductus arteriosus and had injected a contrast dye into the arteries to check that there weren’t any obstructions to the blood flow in the lung, which thankfully there weren’t. Jessica would need to be on a couple of drugs to help stop clots forming in the stent and then if she recovered well and was suitable, the next operation would be a combination of the Norwood and Glenn procedures and would be done in a few months’ time.

It was such a relief to see Jessica when we were finally able to go back to PICU and be with her. She was quite sedated and back on the ventilator but within a few hours was able to go back on to CPAP and we are anticipating that we will be transferred up to Ocean Ward in the next few days.

Thank you so much to everyone for all your thoughts and prayers – we are so thankful to have got through this next stage on the journey and have been so blessed with all the support we have received from so many people. It really helps to know that you are all behind us and that we are not on this journey alone.