Visit with the Surgeon: 37 weeks 3 days in utero

Today we got up early and went to The Fetal Echo Center near Children's Hospital, to meet with the surgeon who will be doing Pat's procedure. Dr. Cohen very kindly took almost an hour to talk with us, even though most of what we talked about was provisional, based on what we know from the ultrasounds to date. After he's born, a much more detailed and extensive ultrasound can be done, and only then will the doctors be able to tell us with confidence what they plan to do.

Every time we talk to a person in the know, or read a more reliable source, the outlook brightens. Talking with Dr. Cohen continued the trend - after talking with him we both feel even more confident than we did before. And it's hard trying to find a more important source of information than the surgeon that will be doing the operation. We was factual and to the point. He wasn't super-friendly, but he didn't talk down to us or pull any punches. He was very clear about about what he did and didn't know, and what we could expect. And he was very confident. We liked the confidence a lot.

Assuming the diagnosis we have is correct and isn't changed with a closer scan after he's born, our baby will have about a 9 in 10 chance of coming home with us after a month or so. His surgery will happen 5 to 7 days after he's born, and we won't be able to pick him up or hold him for several days afterward. This initial procedure will be the most difficult of the three, and will take roughly four to five hours to perform. They need to induce hypothermia, and cool him off to 18 C. Then they begin the first steps that will eventually - after three procedures over several years - leave him with a functional two-chamber heart. When they are finished with this initial re-plumbing his little heart, they'll slowly re-warm him. Then it's up to him to hold on and recover.

It's not easy knowing that so much will happen to our little boy so soon after he's born. This is a serious exercise in trust. But the more we learn about the doctor, the team, the facilities, and all the knowledge and expertise being poured into this, the easier that trust becomes. Knowing in more detail what is going to happen is scary, but knowing also that everything is well understood and that the surgeon has such clear familiarity and comfort with the protocols is an even greater comfort.

We learned a lot in the meeting, and have a lot to wrap our heads around. But we do know that the take-away lesson for us is that we are all in good hands. Come what may, we can rest assured that early last December Pui and I made the right decision.