Calling all Prayer Warriors!

The doctors met with Kevin and Teresa and expressed that they had all been collaborating on Averi's case and had decided that the best course of action would be to do the repair surgery tomorrow. She will still be on iNO, which isn't their preference, because that is typically their backup plan for a baby that desats after surgery. They told Kevin and Teresa that they'd have the ECMO ready and waiting, and if during the surgery she starts to desat, they will immediately put her on ECMO and then finish the repair. The hope is that she will start to do better once her stomach and intestines are put back where they should be. The other issue is that she is up to a rather high number of breaths per minute on the ventilator, which can cause permanent damage to her "good" lung. They are actually afraid that that could've already occurred.

Since Averi doesn't like change, rather than taking her to the operating room, they will be transforming her room into an operating room. They will be doing the long incision, as they're fairly certain that the hernia is large and that they'll need a Gore-tex patch. The surgeon is optimistic that she'll come out of surgery without ECMO. If the ECMO is needed afterward, it can still be employed.

The surgery is scheduled for 1pm PST. Please be praying for the surgeons & team, for Averi, and for Kevin & Teresa. Just a reminder that she is expected to get sicker for the first 24-48 hours after surgery. So you can also be praying that the recovery period will be smooth and without major complications. If anyone would like to be at the hospital to support the Gaynors and pray with them during the surgery, they are more than open to that. They will be hanging out in the NICU waiting room! If you need more information on that, click "comments" below and I'll get back to you.

A major praise is that they were able to get into the Ronald McDonald House for the weekend. This will enable them to be minutes away from the hospital during Averi's critical post-surgical period!

Teresa also had her post partem check-up today, and they were concerned with her blood pressure. For some reason, they didn't seem to think that it was reasonable for her blood pressure to be up with everything going on! She goes back next week.

If you want more info on ECMO or the surgery, click on the little tags below this post. Only posts with those tags show up, and you can scroll down until you get to the "info" --"big long" :) posts.