The worlds BEST Adrenaline Rush!

Pin It Before I go in to all that needs to be shared of Ivy's surgery yesterday and the night she just had, I just want to take a minute to give the One who made her and has always protected her, ALL the glory!!!!!!!
There is one explanation for her survival, and that is ALL GOD!
Thank you prayer warriors who have fallen in love with our girl! Your tiny little jellybean Luciana! I think she has more people calling her ~theirs~ than anything I have ever witnessed! She is so worthy of all this love and respect! Thank you Father in heaven for blessing us all with the life of this precious child! We are all so anxious to watch you use her in big Huge, ways!!!

This is what a hero looks like. A heart warrior indeed! 2 times in 6 months. A whole life of fighting. A will to live that surpasses all understanding. A love that pierces! A child of God. Mighty and perfectly, wonderfully made.

Upon opening our girl and repairing the findings, much was found. The huge cleft in Ivy's mitral valve was not congenital. It was an inscision that happened by accident. The surgeon expected it to be the easiest part of the repair but when he went in to repair it he discovered that the flaps (leaflets) had been cut off too. So the repair consisted of creating new ones and attaching them and then closing the cleft. There is still a little regurgitation from this valve. But nothing that would require further repair. It is minor and it is something that one can live a normal long life with!
The tricuspid valve was patched and repaired. The flaps in that valve were accidentally sewn in to the patch. They took the patch off and attached a new one. One that is NOT sewn in to her precious little tricuspid valve! Her little flaps were set free and then repaired. The tricuspid is working perfectly now and has NO regurgitation! 
The Aorta..... We had no idea there was an issue with her Aorta. Again, a result of her Nikaidoh procedure. The way the Aorta was adhered, it had severe stenosis and was resulting in more of the heart failure she was experiencing. He replaced the whole aortic arch with a conduit. 
Both pulmonary arteries were a mess! Both!! We knew there was an issue with the Left, it was hypoplastic and he planned to address it. He ended up addressing both the right and left arteries!
 Ivy now has 2 brand new pulmonary artery valves.
Ivy's Homograft was not positioned properly and thus was leaking pretty drastically. He was able to save it, relocate it, and patch it with cow tissue. 
They moved on to the right coronary artery. They moved it and while it was flowing, it was not flowing as much as they had hoped. Ivy had been under a very long time and still needed to come off bypass in order to place her new pacemaker. The pacemaker she had from Phoenix surgery was in a far less than optimal place, it did not have the right leads and the leads were in the wrong place. Since they had done all they could do for the right coronary during her heart cath last week, it was time to work on the pacemaker. They took her off bypass and her blood pressure dropped drastically. We called on The Team and we thank you ALL for your fervent prayers!!! Ivy's heart just wasn't beating. They used the paddles, and put her back on bypass. 
Her surgeon just had a very strong suspicion  that this was rooting from the coronary artery. Just as he suspected put her on ECMO after her first surgery in Phoenix. So he went in with a scope and looked very closely. He was shocked at what he found. He found 2 stitches in the coronary artery!! When our Phoenix surgeon put in her homograft, he must have gotten too close to the RCA and he actually stitched it closed. My oh my am I biting my tongue right now...... All these kinks! All these mistakes.. How did they not know? Stitches?? Yes, baby girl has been through the ringer. And mommy will bite her tongue. You can also bet that the doctors here at Boston will be assiting me in finding a new team of doctors for Ivy back in Arizona. Because mommy can be calm and gracious, but mommy is not clueless! 
Dr Baird snipped the stitches and the RCA saw blood flow!!! We do not know what the future holds for this artery and the damage that may have been done by the stitches having been there. The artery was also repositioned during the Phoenix surgery and the doctors in Boston say that it was put in a terrible spot, way too high, but it is way too risky to try and relocate it again after all she had been through today. Praise be to God that she was not able to come off Bypass or they would have never found those stitches and her RCA would have slowly gone back to being completely occluded, thus leaving us grim hope for Ivy's life.
Praise to God for this wonderful man who wanted so bad to be sure he addressed every single issue with Ivy's heart all in one shot so that our little jellybean could have a REAL chance!!! Her RCA is now flowing!
It was soooooo late now and it was time to get that pacemaker in and those new leads on and get this baby out of the O.R. 
It took a long time for them to tell us she was off Bypass again and this mommy had a few melt downs waiting. I was preparing myself again for what might not be my plan and remembering all that this little girl had already accomplished in her short life. My mustard seed faith was shrinking without me even realizing it as I leaned on the changing table in the bathroom and had a good cry! Every person in the waiting room, all with kids who came in much later than our baby, all had been given the great news that their children were recovering in their rooms and they could see them soon. I asked, "why not our baby God"? She has been through so much. She has been through an earthly form of hell. This time was supposed to be different. And then I was reminded of the promises God made to me, and I to Him. Of all our special time chatting together in China as He prepared my heart, my soul and my mind for the days ahead with Ivy Joy. He equipped me for this. This is not strength of my own, I take no credit for that! In China, I told Him I would never regret how many days He gave me with Ivy Joy. I told Him I would be the best mom I could be for her and I would love her like He loves me! And he promised to never leave her to never forsake her! And He promised that whatever we had to go through, we would never, not for a minute, be alone.
And then Jessica, our nurse came to tell us that Ivy was off bypass and would be up in an hour or so!!! She would come up with an open chest and the doctor would be in to see us shortly after. Relief is the only word. No ECMO, our baby was ok!!!
Hours later we finally had our conference with the surgeon. This incredible man who took our baby, with a messed up chopped up, hardly functioning heart, and spent all day and night doing everything possible to make it right.
So grateful!
She is having a little flutter issue that they are using medication for right now. That heart has been through so much. Her pacer is the Mercedes of pacemakers and should be able to make that flutter less of a problem soon. 
Her swelling is already going down, she is peeing on her own, there is even talk of closing her chest as soon as tomorrow!!! 
She is on a cooling blanket. She will remain paralyzed and sedated for several days. She is soooooo beautiful even with all that graphic exposure! 

Believe, and you shall receive, anything you ask for in prayer. 
If it is God's will.... Step back and be prepared to see a miracle!!!!!!!!

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