The Longer Version

Dear all,

We just got home from the hospital a little while ago - we are both very exhausted as we both didn't sleep much last night but Jong and I are really praising and thanking God.

We arrived at the hospital at 8:30 am as instructed and were very pleasantly surprised when they said we could go straight into NICU to be with Isaac. They allowed us to touch and talk to Isaac as they prepared Isaac for the surgery. Isaac looked really good this morning before he went into surgery so both Jong and I felt quite encouraged. At around 10:00 am or so, with what must have been most of the surgery team looking on, the nurse moved Isaac out of his incubator, weighed him (he weighed 1,184 grams right before his surgery - almost at the 1.2 kgs Dr. Ishii was hoping for) and then put him into the transporter incubator. We then walked with the medical team and saw Isaac off as they pushed him down the corridor to the surgery room. Dr. Ozawa, the heart surgeon, shook both Jong's and my hands promising to do his best for our precious boy before going. Jong and I got a bit teary eyed watching our boy go off to his surgery.

As Jong and I sat down outside of NICU to wait while Isaac was in surgery, we really did feel a lot of peace. We prayed together and I then made Jong take a nap as he couldn't sleep last night and I want him to be able to spend some quality time with Isaac in the afternoon (this was probably when Jong dreamt about the amazing clam ^_^).

In any case, towards the end of Isaac's surgery, the head nurse came out and told us they were almost finished with a smile - so we took that as a good sign. We were later told Isaac's actual surgery took 1.5 hours but the entire procedure started from around 10:10 am to about 1:30 to 2:00 pm. When we were finally allowed back into NICU to see our boy, we were pleasantly surprised as he looked better than we thought he would and his eyes were already opened. He was also placed on a special open bed under a radiant warmer instead of inside his incubator to allow the doctors and nurses easier access to take care of him. Today was the first time Jong and I saw our baby boy outside his incubator and we got to spend the most time we have ever had next to his open bed!! ^_^

Isaac's surgeon Dr. Ozawa told us that Isaac's PDA turned out to be bigger than we had all thought - it was bigger than 3 mm, almost the same size as his aorta. Fortunately, Dr. Ozawa was able to successfully ligate the PDA. He also mentioned that Isaac's lungs were really red which meant there were way too much blood flow going into lungs due to his large PDA and it was making it a lot more difficult for him to breathe. So we are very thankful that Isaac's surgery happened now rather than later. Dr. Ozawa said that the major concern now is whether Isaac's sutures may tear as his skin is so thin and the cut is quite large for Isaac's size (about 4-5 cm horizontally on his left side). So please pray that Isaac's wound will heal quickly without complications. Dr. Ozawa also said that it will take a few days to see the effects of the surgery including both good (e.g. improvement of his lung condition and blood circulation) and bad effects (e.g. whether any lymph vessels might have been nicked and might be leaking after the surgery). Later on in the evening, Dr. Ozawa came back and listened to Isaac's heart and said that Isaac's heart murmer from his PFO (the other smaller hole between his left and right heart chambers) seemed to have decreased but he said that we will need the cardiologist to confirm as the cardiologist would be much better at listening for heart murmers.

I was able to spend from about 3 to 3.5 hours with Isaac this afternoon. He was very tired and slept most of the time but it was just so great to be able to sit next to him and pray for him and sing to him. Isaac was stable the entire afternoon and the oxygen mix being ventilated into his lungs went from 35% post surgery to 25% before we left. They also started his first feed at 7 pm before we left and Isaac got really fresh milk to break his fast (starting from 4 am this morning) as I pumped for him at 6:30 pm. ^_^ Poor little Isaac was getting quite hungry as I noticed that he had opened his mouth and started licking at thin air at around 6 pm!

We forgot to bring our camera today so we hope that Isaac will still be in the open bed tomorrow for us to take some good pictures of him. We were glad we didn't have the distracion of a camera today and just spent some good quality time with him today.

We just feel so blessed. Our God is so good. Thank you all of you sooooo much for all of your loving prayers and support. We are also very thankful to the doctors and nurses - they all seem to genuinely care about Isaac and they really did a very good job taking care of him.

In Christ,

Sonia