Post Transplant Download Part 1

This may be random thoughts but I'm just going to run through everything that's top of mind.  Some of the details are graphic and they may be disturbing, so feel free to stop reading here.

We already know that the donor was a two year old girl who's blood type was also A+ like Olivia and thus a great match.  She was approximately the same size as Liv and that made her heart optimal size as cruel and terrible as that is - it improves the potential success of the transplant. (Close my eyes, say a prayer here for that incredible donor family that just gave Olivia a new lease on life)

For whatever reason the lungs of the donor were not being donated; this was a bigger plus for Olivia because the procurement team was able to take a lot of the pulmonary arteries and replace Olivia's.  This means she doesn't have a stent in her left pulmonary artery any longer.  Bye bye medical device card.  There was also enough Inferior and Superior Vena Cava to fully repair the re-routing that had been done by her previous Glenn and Fontan.  She no longer has any artificial materials in the way of conduits or stents in her.  You can see on today's post-op x-ray there are still three little coils in her collaterals from the pre-Fontan cath, but they are of no significance right now.

Her post-op x-ray of heart and lungs is stunning compared to yesterdays.  A new four chamber heart for Olivia is approximately half the size of her old two chamber heart.  Unreal.

Right now her new heart has had a few itchy moments but they have been regulated by a temporary external pacemaker.  The staff is pleased, she looks good and I am remaining ever cautiously optimistic. Until she's extubated and talking to all of us, I will not really feel like we have a full handle on things nor do we have any reassurances that there was not any neurological side effect from bypass or anything else until we see some interaction.

Thank you all for the love, prayers and supports.  She most definitely feels it and so do all of us.