Email Luke Update From Pam

Hello again! We went to Luke's pre-op appt yesterday. They did an ultrasound of his heart, drew labs, and did a chest x-ray. As far as we know all of that was fine. We met Dr. Woods, the surgeon, and Kayla, his nurse. They were both very nice and seemed confident that the surgery would go as planned. The surgery will be Thursday April 5th. We have to arrive at 5:30 am, they will take him from us at 7 am and start the sedation and intubate him. The surgery will actually start at 8 am. They will be doing the surgery between the ribs which is not going to be horribly painful, like we had originally thought. He will do a 3 inch incision under his arm by his shoulder blade and spread the ribs but since they are very pliable at his age, they won't brake or cause much pain at all. He will be just cutting the artery and leaving it. Luke will have a tube coming out of his incision for drainage which will come out before he leaves the hospital. They expect him to be in the PICU at Mary Bridge for 2-5 days. Everything sounds like it should be no problem which I will be telling myself over and over again as I hand him to the surgical team. So, at this point, please just pray that everything goes as planned and that it won't be too traumatic for Matt, Abby, or me. Luke is a trooper and I know he will do just fine... He has been through worse! Thank you all for your prayers and offers to help out where we need it. We love and appreciate all of you!
Pamela