Decision to Operate

Dr. Bradley, the electrophysiologist came to talk to us this morning. We thought he was going to tell us that we were free to go home and that the pacemaker was stable enough to last until the spring when Evan is already scheduled to have his next surgery. To the contrary, Dr. Bradley informed us that he felt Evan’s pacemaker lead needed to be replaced as soon as possible and they were working to open up space in the OR for tomorrow or later in the week. This came as quite a shock to us but as Dr. Bradley explained it became very clear. It’s a safety net, plain and simple. Evan’s pacemaker is nearly at its max settings and it’s only giving him 90 beats per minute, if the problem with the lead or the connection gets worse there is no wiggle room with the pacemaker settings and it becomes critical. Could the pacemaker lead make it until the spring? Maybe. Maybe not. It’s the maybe not that we need to prepare for. Prepare for what is the safest course of action for Evan. Nobody wants him to have an extra surgery, least of all mom and I, but we understand and are in agreement with the doctors. I like safety nets. Other than the obvious concerns that we have about this surgery like intubating him, opening him up, infections, there is also a concern about more scar tissue both in his chest and on his heart there the pacemaker leads go. During the last surgery Dr. Hirsch had a very difficult time with all the scar tissue and this new surgery is just going to make the surgery in the spring that much more difficult.

So now we wait… again. As of this 5:00pm earlier today we had not heard if any space had been opened up in the OR. We should hear something in the morning. So now it’s clear, we’re going to be here at least the rest of the week, maybe longer if they can’t get him in until later in the week. For now we’ll just hang out and have a good time with Evan. We’ve been going for walks and playing alot. He’s so close to crawling. He will get on all four and move a couple feet. He hasn’t quite figured out the leg movement yet.

We walked over to the adult cardiology building today. There is a beautiful atrium there where we stopped to look around and take a few pictures.

We also hung out near our room and watched the people and cars way down below us. Evan loved smacking the window while he watched the world go by below him.

Enjoy a few pictures we took today…