One Tough Cookie

As many of you know, Ernie, Mason and I traveled to Palo Alto, CA on December 4th for Mason's scheduled surgery, the Glenn. We had been told we would have a clinic visit on December 5th and therefore booked our tickets far in advance. We learned that this date had changed to the 8th but decided to go ahead and come out early. We enjoyed a couple of days of peacefulness and settled in to Ronald McDonald house once again.

On Tuesday, December 9th Mason underwent is catheritization surgery in which they were checking the pressures in his pulmonary artery and right ventricle. They looked good and everyone decided it was a go for his Glenn surgery that was scheduled for this surgery. In this next phase the blood returning from the head would be directed bi-directionally to both lungs where it would then pick up oxygen before being sent back to the right ventricle before being pumped out to the body. This was supposed to be the "easiest" of the 3 stage surgeries.

We were told that we were second in line for surgery on Thursday, which means that there would be a slim chance that he would get in. No big deal, as we were "seasoned" veterans to the surgery schedule and knew what to expect. Wednesday night around 9:00pm one of the surgical team members called us and told us we were moved up to first on the surgical schedule. Mason would be going in after all!

Thursday morning came and with complete confidence we walked Mason to the OR and turned him over to the cardiac anesthiosologist. We were expecting an approximate 4 -5 hour surgery and settled in to the new surgical waiting area. At approximately 12:00 pm we were told to expect Dr. Hanley to come down and speak with us in approximately 20 minutes. Upon his arrival he greeted us and then proceeded to take us to the "HIPPA" room where we sat down to await what we thought would be good news. Dr. Hanley began with stating that "We had to change the plan". I didn't think this was a big deal as Mason had demonstrated some tenting in his pulmunoary artery on his echo and I thought he would be discussing how they had to fix this a s well. Instead he shocked us by letting us know that while the fellow, Dr. Maeda, was entering Mason's heart his aorta was cut. They had to take immediate measures to save his life, which included placing him on the heart lung bypass machine and profuse him with blood. Dr. Hanley said he had been on his way down to speak with us when the immediately called him to the OR. He also stated that he thought Mason had been in this state for approximately 5 minutes and that he was extremely opptomistic that everything would be fine. He even said he thought they would be able to go back in and do the Glenn the next day. No, they didn't even do the surgery which was scheduled as they were too busy saving little Mason's life. We had previously been told by the physician's assistant, Dr. Quang, that entering the chest was a very critical procedure and this was undertaken with utmost care since the scar tissue is so close to the heart. The one thing that he stressed was what took so long to get into the chest and that was so critical was what went wrong.

After speaking with one of the nurses, Michelle, she understood that Mason's neo aorta was cut and then subsequently ruptured. Nevertheless, since this devasting event the plan for his surgery and care has changed several times. We will no longer have the surgery this week but instead will wait for and MRI on Monday to determine if there has been any damage to his brain. The Glenn surgery places more pressure on the brain as it changes the distribution of blood and therefore there is concern on whether or not to proceed with the Glenn right away.

Mason has proven that he is just a trooper. He was extubated at 6:05 pm last night and has been taken completely off of nasual canula oxygen today and is breathing room air. During his immediate post-operative stay he was taken completely off of all pain and paralytic medications to determine if he had movement and was acting like he should. Of course, this little boy did that-show them he is tough. When Carolyn from the chaplainship came in and annointed him with healing oil his body knew it was time and within a few minutes he began to move and open his eyes. This little boy has angels helping him through it all. Shortly after, his pain medications were then added back on in part. They have since started to wean him off of any continous medications and he is being given doses as needed. His feeding through the g-tube started with 3mls per hour at midnight on Friday and have increased to 30mls per hour continuously today.

That first day was completely draining and both Ernie and I feel our bodies totally drained. The stress has given us what no-work out could, complete utter exhaustion. Keep Mason in your prayers...he needs it now more than ever.

Mason is such a favorite around here and we have received all sorts of well wishes and words of encouragement. We know all those thoughts and prayers are helping him pull through.