Pacemaker Day – Update

Posted on August 12, 2011 by William 4 Comments

 

They took Evan back to prep him for surgery at about 2:00pm. The surgery is expected to be about 3 hours. Right now we’re waiting for the surgeon to come and talk to us before the surgery starts. Dr. Hirsch had to go out of town today for work so our surgeon today is Dr. Eric Devaney. Sarah and I are both pretty nervous and doing what we can to keep our minds off of it all. Once the surgeon comes to talk to us I think I am going to go for a quick drive and Sarah is going to go grab some lunch in the cafeteria. I suspect it will be at least an hour and a half before we get an update. I am beginning to think that the surgeon is not going to come talk to us beforehand… that seems to be the norm around here with much of the staff.

Dr. Devaney came and talked to us… and now the surgery has undoubtedly begun. Most of what he said we have already heard and I have already conveyed on the website. The new piece of information is that the electrophysiologist and cardiologists decided to only put a pacing wire on Evan’s ventricle for right now. In 4-6 months when he has his hemi-Fontan procedure they will put a lead on his atrium. The thought is that 1) they can pace his ventricle independently from his atrium’s rhythm without issue, this is what they have been doing for the last two weeks. 2) during the 2nd surgery the pacing wires would be in the way, need to be removed, and replaced.

More updates later… but here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.