Arabella's Story
Hello everyone - thanks for visiting Arabella's web site. We want to thank all the staff and doctors that have assisted with her care and surgery - Dr. Fortuna, Dr. Rivera, Candice, Gail, Lisa, Anne, Ann, Doug, Kris, Ivy, Jesse, Sue, Julie, Carol, Mary, and all the others we can't remember right now due to lack of sleep.
Arabella was diagnosed in May of 06 with a Ventrical Septal Defect - a hole between her left and right ventricals. She also was found to have an Atrial Septal Defect - a hole in her atrium. Her surgery on Sept. 20 was to repair these holes. The surgery started at 1:00pm, and she was in her room in the pediatric ICU around 9:30pm. A very long day. Thankfully, we had family and some friends there to help us through the long day in the waiting room. After the nurse, Tammy, took Arabella from mom's arms in the surgical holding area, we went to the waiting room. We recieved several phone calls updating us as the surgery was progressing. The first phone call was to let us know that the surgery was underway - this meant that the surgeons were preping her to go on bypass - otherwise known as being on the heart/lung machine. This was tenuous for us, because this meant that her heart would be stopped, and she was being maintained by the machines.
The next phone call was to let us know the holes had been repaired. Now began the wait that she was coming off bypass. This was a rather long wait - although it was actually only a couple if hours. Next was the phone call to let us know they were closing her chest up - sutures or stitches were being sewn on her chest. At this point, the chaplain came to take us to a conference room right off the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit), so that we could discuss the surgery with our surgeon, Dr. Fortuna.
While we were waiting in the PICU conference room, Arabella was wheeled by - she was still asleep at this point, but it was good to see her after surgery. Dr. Fortuna came and told us exactly what had transpired during the surgery, and how well Arabella had done. No major complications, no surprises. Good news. The doctor was very encouraged at this point.