Met the Surgeon

Just a quick update...we just got home from meeting with the surgeon that is going to be doing Charlotte's repair on Thursday. I like him a lot. Very confident, yet  not cocky. Made us feel at ease, explained the repair in detail and let us know that it should be pretty low risk. He went through the few risks of the surgery, mainly being a valve leaking later in life (goes up 10% for every ten years, she will have to be followed by a cardiologist her whole life to keep an eye on this) and possible issues that may require a pacemaker (1-2% chance). He also told us that is would take about 2 hours for the prep, 2-3 hours for the repair, and then an hour or so after wards in the OR. He seemed to think that most kids with this repair, with her good health, go home in 4-5 days (though our cardiologist told us 7-10)--lets hope he is right! He also seemed to think the pulmonary hypertension shouldn't be an issue; most kids with heart defects have it, and she shouldn't have any permanent effects from it. I also enjoyed that he used people first language, and didn't refer to Charlotte as a "down's baby." :-)