Well for weeks we have anticipated, with excitement and dread, September 11, 2014. We definitely wanted Madi’s reconstruction to be completed so we could be in “recovery mode” and hopefully work towards going home. On the other hand, knowing what all she would have to go through definitely made us dread this date. Wednesday, we received word from her surgeon that we would be able to hold Madi before her surgery. Of course we were thrilled and she handled it awesome, It had been over a month since either of us were able to have her in our arms. We spent as much time with her on Wednesday that we could in preparation for yesterday. We got to the hospital, yesterday at 6:15am, and were welcomed by a wide awake, beautiful little girl. We spent time just enjoying her being so bright eyed until the Anesthesia team came to pick her up around 7:15. Off we were to the pediatric waiting room, hoping it wouldn’t be an all day surgery. Thankfully they called every hour to keep us updated, which is wonderful for us to know she is doing well as they continue on. We also had one of our PICU nurses, who spent lots of time caring for Madi in PICU, in the OR. So we were glad to get the updates from a familiar voice! One of the first things they did during the operation was to place an arterial line, this was placed in her right leg. It goes into the artery and gives them the most accurate, continuous blood pressure. It also gives them another source to draw blood to check her blood gases and different things. They also placed a foley catheter. After these two things they started the process for placing her on the ECMO (bypass machine) This took longer than expected. The way they had hoped to do this, they weren’t able to continue with because they couldn’t maintain the flow they needed to keep her oxygenated appropriately. So they had to make an incision in the right side of her neck and place 2 large cannulas that exchange her blood with the ECMO pump. One tube drains the blood from her body, it is processed through the machine where the CO2 is removed and the blood is oxygenated, warmed and sent back into her body next to her heart. They had to find a good balance, because they have to use heparin (blood thinner) to keep the blood from clotting. They also had to give her another medication to keep her blood from being too thin since she was having surgery. They finally got all of this stabilized to continue on with her repair around 12. It took her surgeon a while to dissect everything and get into the space she needed to work in. There are a lot a nerves and important areas that she was careful not to damage! We finally received an update saying she was sewing up the trachea and esophagus, then another call… still sewing, another call… still sewing, another call… still sewing. I know it was so long for us to fathom with all this sewing, but I can’t imagine the tedious work under the microscope that the surgeon had to perform. Finally received a call saying they were closing her up, then the word from our nurse that she was headed upstairs. The surgeons then came to talk with us and go over in more detail how the procedure went! Everything went smoothly and she was able to close up the esophagus and trachea successfully. She then reinforced them with something called Core Matrix (aka pig intestine) that should hopefully strengthen and improve the repair. There were really no surprises during the surgery, Thank the Lord! We came back up to the waiting room to wait to see Madi, but then found out she had a pneumothorax (air in the chest cavity). So the surgeon had to be called back to the hospital and she put in a chest tube to drain the air. Finally around midnight we were able to come see her. Its quite a site to see all the blood leaving your child’s body and into a machine, but it was not as bad as we expected. She is VERY swollen, which is her body’s inflammatory response to the ECMO and the surgery. Hopefully this will subside in a few days. She has lots of wires, tubes, and IV medications! But she is here, sedated, and hopefully healing! We are praying a week from now we will be rejoicing with pictures of her beautiful reconstruction success! This week will hopefully be very boring, with little to no complications! She has already had a heart echo this morning to check her heart, which was good! But this type of intervention can cause different things to happen, so we pray the Lord allows her body to heal and not have any added difficulties from her being on the ECMO. We are more than grateful for all the prayers and encouragement we have received and want to thank you all for that! Many times we have said, we don’t know how people go through things like this without knowing the Lord. We are so blessed to know He knows the situation and has never left us alone. Please continue to pray for Madi this week especially for no complications. Next Thursday the 18th will be her follow up look with the camera down her tubes to see how everything looks. Once we get past that, it will still be a long road of recovery, and a whole different set of prayer requests! We’ve included a picture of her room, not sharing any close ups of our sweet baby right now! It’s a lot to take in… Just imagine how beautiful she will look once she is all healed up!