Narrowing the Possibilites

This morning the cardiologist (Putrowski) came and spoke with us again. Although it will depend on what the surgeon says tomorrow, it is looking likely that Meredith will receive operation #2 explained below - the right ventricle is just too small. He did say however, that when they end up doing a single ventricle heart, her setup, as opposed to having the left ventricle being too small, is better and has a better statistical prognosis. As it stands now, after the surgery, she will have a 75%-80% chance of living 5 more years. However, most people live to their late teens and some even live as long as 30-40. I have never been one to buy too much into the statistics an indicator of future action so don't think that is getting me down, it is just an average. It is also looking like surgery will be on Friday, but again we will not know until tomorrow.

I have read some about the individual surgeries in a book here at the hospital but have not had time to find links yet. The second surgery is referred to as the Glenn (of course with a name like that how could it be bad) and the third is the Fontan.

Meredith is being kept comfortable and has her eyes open quite a bit. Before she was in the hospital she would often stick her tongue out, just because she could. She will look us in the eyes and stick out that little tongue around her breathing tube - I can't explain in words how that make us feel.

Again we are very appreciative of all the support that we have received. Thank you.

-Chip