Dear Sydney,
Last night and this morning you have been a little more congested than usual. Last week I couldn't hear any congestion at all but it is starting to come back, sadly. I wonder if the doctor is going to have to up your dosage of medicine even more? Hm.

The type of surgery you will be having is open-heart surgery. So that means that you will have a scar that runs from the top of your rib cage down to the bottom of your rib cage. This scar will be visible your entire life. Of course, at the beginning the scar will be dark red but over time, it will fade like any other scar. You will also have two little dots for scars. One below of each lung. In order to allow for drainage after the surgery, the doctors will insert drainage tubes below your lungs. Once these tubes are not needed anymore all they have to do is give them a gentle pull and they come right out. Not stitches will be necessary. You will have some pretty neat battle scars! You are a fighter, thats for sure.

The surgery itself only takes an hour but you will be in the operating room for 4 hours. Once they get you under anesthesia they will insert all of the IV's (one in your arm and one on your neck). Then they will open your chest cavity and have to saw through a little bit of your sternum to allow for easier access to your heart. Once that is finished they will connect your heart to the heart-lung machine. Because your heart cannot be beating while it is being operated on, something else must do the work. That's where the heart-lung machine comes into play. It will pump the fluids, sugars, salts, and blood that your body needs while in surgery. The technology we have these days is incredible. Once you are stable enough to move on, the operation begins. Whether they use a piece of your own tissue or a small piece of mesh fabric the process is still the same. They place the tissue inside your hole and your heart will just grow right on top of that tissue...thus, closing it up! (During this whole process, the heart is never brought outside of the chest cavity. Your heart will always stay inside of you.) Once they are finished, they will leave your chest open for a while to make sure everything is stable and then re-start your heart so it can now pump for itself. Then they begin to close you up. They start by reconnecting your sternum by using wire. You will probably only need one or two stitches with the wire. The Dr. says that in future x-rays you will be able to see those wires on your sternum...kind of neat! Then they close your chest with dissolvable stitches.

Afterwards, you are brought to the ICU for an hour where the nurses and dr.'s will do the required assessments. After an hour, Mom and Dad can come in to see you. We won't be able to hold you at that point but at least we can see you.

During the surgery only two adults are allowed in the "inpatient waiting room." Due to lack of space they must limit the number of people that can be there. Periodically, about once an hour, the dr. will come out to let us know how things are going. If at anytime we feel like we need another update, there is a phone in the waiting room that we can use to call into the operating room and check on your status. Once you are out of surgery we will move to a different waiting room.

I hope this answers more of your questions.

You're a fighter, Sydney. You always have been. I love you.

Love, Mom