Tyler's Journey...Second Surgery "The Glenn"

Tyler Just had his second surgery for his Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. This surgery is called "The Glenn". It was really tough to see him go through open heart surgery. When they tried to get him off the breathing tube he failed to breath on the first attempt, they had to put him back on the respirator. They tried a second time and it went pretty well until he decided not to breath again. They were able to get him going. Thank goodness because he fought that breathing tube when he awoke from the anesthesia. This is the first day of surgery. If you look close you can see how red he is from his chest up. This is due to the new routing of the arteries. The main artery going down the side of the neck has to flow by gravity. This takes awhile to learn how to flow this "new" way. He also has bad headaches because of the swelling and pressure in his head.

This is his nice scar that he will have.

This look just tells the whole story on how he was feeling

This is the 4Th day. His color has already improved. He was still in a lot of pain. It just broke my heart. The doctor said he had some decreased heart function. They hope it will improve.

Time will tell.

On the 5Th day he was doing much better. He even smiled at the nurse. He was able to go home with mom and dad today. The next step is surgery #3 when he is about 2 years old. This is suppose to be the roughest one out of all 3 surgeries. I am not looking forward to that day.

If this surgery that he just had fails, then that will put him on the heart transplant list. I hope this surgery will do the job for him. I don't want him to have to go through any more!