This week...

It's surgery week for this little guy.

Although he's had surgery twice since he's been home with us in November, this is the "big one". The one we've been working up to for the past 6 months. The one that he needs to keep his little body functioning. Our first experience with open heart surgery, as his others have been done in China.

Although we often hear how good he looks and that nobody would ever know something is wrong with him, his little heart cannot sustain any longer. Our reports from the doctors in China indicated that he had approximately 6 months left with his heart in its current condition. Well, those 6 months were up a month ago. 

We are constantly amazed at how happy, silly, and animated this little stinker is. What a joy... even when he's a tremendous crab in the morning (Sam has begun to refer to him as Grumpy Cat when he wakes up!). His crazy sense of humor, LOUD laughing, and love of teasing amazes us even more by the fact that he has a cough that won't go away, he's getting "puffy", and his oxygen sats are now constantly in the 70s. He has to feel miserable. But, he just keeps going because it would be horrible to miss out on something, you know?!? Especially if your big brother is doing it or it involves water of any kind.

Anyway, surgery is Friday.  I'll spare you all the medical terminology and lingo, but here is an incredibly brief description of Kai's main heart defects:

*Kai was born without a large section of the right side of his heart.
*Because he was born without this part of his heart, he has several valve defects. He is completely missing his pulmonary valve. His tricuspid valve is malformed and underdeveloped.
*His right pulmonary artery is twisted and kinked.
*He has a hole between the right and left atria.
*He has blood vessels growing from where his right ventricle should be and attaching to his coronary artery.

Our pre-op appointment on Friday revealed that his heart cath showed some things that are "alarming" and "of great concern" (as if the defects mentioned above weren't concerning enough!). We will be discussing this and what this means for Friday's surgery this Wednesday (June 3) at another pre-op appointment. If it seems appropriate, we'll update after that appointment. For now, we are going to be using our blog to share appointment, surgery, and recovery updates.

As you read through updates, we would appreciate if you would keep Kai, our family, and his amazing doctors in your thoughts and prayers!