The hole is patched!

The nurse just came in...

This is my (Lydia's) first time to update since surgery started. Has anyone mentioned how huge the nurse is? His name is Mike, and he's a giant.

Back to business...

We just received the leftover bit of Gore-Tex that was used to patch up James's hole. There is a small circle cut out of the bit, about the size of a dime. Which, when you think about it, a dime-sized hole in an egg-sized heart...that's a pretty big hole.

The doctor also sutured up a small hole between the atriums. This hole had been mentioned at our very first visit, but the dr. then had said that it was common to most babies, and nothing to worry about. I guess the surgeon decided to just take care of it, and that's fine with me!

James's heart is now beating on it's own! The next stage is to add in lines for a temporary pacemaker, put in chest tubes (to get any drainage out of the chest cavity), and then sew him all back up. The nurse will be back in an hour for any other updates.