Luke here with a Surgery Update!

So Maddie's surgery went very well. The doctor was smiling and patting Luke on the back as he walked out. They only had to turn her oxygen up a little bit during the surgery. Other than that, she was nice and calm.

They found a pretty large defect. Maddie was missing about 40% of her diaphragm, all of it on the left side. Her intestines, stomach, and spleen were all in her chest cavity at the time of surgery. They were able to fix the hole with a combination of a muscle flap and gortex patch. They detached some of her oblique muscles and used that to close the diaphragm. The muscle was a little thin in one place, so they also put in a small gortex patch to reinforce that weak spot. The doctor hopes that the muscle flap will grow with Maddie and carry a smaller risk of retearing.

Maddie's abdomen was too small to contain all the new organs that have to fit there, so she currently has a silo. That is basically a plastic tube that is holding her intestines outside her body. As her abdomen is stimulated to grow, they will be able to push more of those intestines into her abdomen and finally stitch up her incision. They hope to do that over the weekend. She also has a chest tube to drain out some of the excess fluid that will fill her chest. It is quite a site to see.

All in all, this was more than we were hoping for, but we are so proud of our little girl! We spent time with her late last night, and again about 4 am. She is off of the paralytic medication and is starting to move around a bit. She was squeezing our fingers and opening her eyes just a little bit last night. Now she can start the road to recovery! We were able to see some pre and post operation x-rays. It is obvious that her left lung has expanded quite a bit and has much more room to grow. Hopefully, that means better lung function in the long term.

Thank you all for your prayers yesterday.

Isaiah 41:10
So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.