NICU, CCC, and Cardiac Surgeon

Today we had a tour of the labor and delivery unit, the Newborn Intensive Care, and the Cardiovascular Care Center and met the Cardiac Surgeon.
WOW.
That could make anyone tired!
All I could keep thinking is how thankful I am that we are still pregnant!

So the L&D unit is very nice, and we learned that when I am about to deliver they will move me to the Operating room/ or High Risk delivery rooms and there will be a NICU team there to take the baby and stabilize him. Jeff will get to go with him, and then as soon as I am recovered enough they will take me to him.

WE met the director of the NICU and he was very nice. We talked to him about a few of the questions we had about the NICU. The nursing ratio will be either one nurse to the baby or one nurse to 2 babies until he is stable enough for surgery.

He will be in the NICU until he has surgery. Once he has surgery he then will be in the Cardiovascular Care Center.

The CCC is set up alot like the ICU with private rooms and I forgot to ask the nurse patient ratio. But I assume that it will be whatever he needs.

So meeting the surgeon, I want to tell you about it. But I need to back up for a moment and tell you what I expected first. I expected the surgeon to be completely aloof, and like so smart that he lacked personal skills. But honestly I do not care- he can be a complete A@@hole as long as he does a good job! Anyway, one of my good friends had said/warned me to consider that possibility. And I am glad I did.

He was 45 minutes late to our meeting, and was yawning when he talked to us. He did answer all of my questions. He was knowledgeable and unable to dumb down his language, like talking about baby weight in CC's and such, but I could still understand his concepts. He had slicked back hair and a big smile.

He said there is about a 2 percent mortality rate with this surgery. If the baby is born prematurely that number goes up significantly. I asked him how often they do this surgery, and he said 10-15 times a year. So not every day, but often.

I asked how many people are on the team- at the time of surgery and it sounds like there are up to 11 people. Holy Crap!

He also talked about a potential thing they would do if the baby got really puffy called Delayed Sternal Closure. So the baby would have an open chest for a few days before they would close the chest. Of course it would be covered with a large bandage, and he said it would be hard to tell.

He also said that the baby could be on aspirin for 6-12 months after and a diuretic when we take him home.

IT also sounds like how long he will be in the hospital depends some on how well he eats. Occasionally babies go home with a tube for a little time.

The other really interesting thing we learned about is a medication that is called prostaglandin that allows the heart to mix blood and allows the baby to receive oxygenated blood until the surgery. An echocardiogram will be done shortly after birth to indicate when the surgery will/should be done. More than likely within the first 5 days after being born. Even if he is premature.

Another completely fascinating thing is that they will use his belly button for the iv if they can. They have a vein and an artery right there that they can provide nutrients for the baby and get blood and give medications.

Okay, that is my brain dump for now.

Jeff is bringing Adeline up here to see me, and I can hardly wait to see her!

Oh yeah, one more question I asked is how difficult is this surgery compared to other surgeries and he said moderate.