Update: Martin's Second Open-Heart Surgery -- Today

We were up early this morning and got to the hospital at 5:30am. Martin was pleasant for us last night and this morning and we were sad to have to "do this to him." It's a complicated emotion to express adequately when you want to protect a loved one, but in order to do so you are forced to put him in a situation of (temporary) pain. I'm sure there's a Gospel application in there.

6:30am he was handed off to the anesthesiologist and they said the surgery would begin around 7:30am. It is now currently 9am and so they are probably well underway. I wonder how he's doing? We have a pager that the hospital has given us and they will let us know the status of the surgery. No word yet. They said that Dr. Kavarana is very careful (and takes his time) about re-opening the chest because of scar tissue. So we are grateful for his great care. We know he is in good hands, but we feel so bad for the poor guy. It just never ends for him.

A few words from Psalm 37 gave a lot of comfort this morning. "Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass." I love the repeated focus on "the Lord, the Lord, the Lord." We live in such distracted days that it's too easy (for me) to put my focus on everything (and everyone) else BUT the Lord. It makes for a life full of restlessness and anxiety. These words gave me the "peace anchor" I needed for these restless days.

We'll keep you posted as we hear anything. Thank you for praying for our little guy.

9:30am - We just got our first page from the operating room! Good morning, everything is going well in the OR. They are working on getting through scar tissue and sweet Martin remains very stable and is doing well. I will update you again in an hour. Jennifer. (Praise the Lord!)

11:00am: Hey there. Everything continues to go well in the OR. They are now on the heart lung bypass machine and working away. Sweet Martin remains very stable and is doing well. I will update you again in an hour. Jennifer

12:00pm: Hey there. Everything continues to go well in the OR. They are coming off of the heart lung bypass machine now and sweet Martin remains very stable and is doing well. I will update you again in an hour. Jennifer (So, it appears that the surgery part is over..)

12:50pm: Hey there. They are starting to close in the OR and sweet Martin remains very stable. I think they will be coming to the PCICU in the next 30-45 minutes. Please be in the waiting here, Dr. Kavarana will look for you there. Jennifer

1:15pm -- Hooray! 6-hour surgery is complete! We just finished talking with the surgeon and team about how the operation went and he was very pleased with the entire procedure. He said Martin did really well and that he is recovering now in the PCICU. We cannot see him just yet because they need some more time to settle him in. But Dr. Kavarana could not be more pleased. He did mention that he found some collaterals that he had to deal with. But he doesn't feel it should be of any further concern. They're keeping an eye on his bleeding for the next 4-6 hours, and if things are good they'll start to wake him up and work on getting the ventilator settings down. The nurse told us Martin looks amazing! We look forward to seeing him soon!