Thursday, October 21, 2021

I got discharged from the hospital last night around 10:00pm. We spent the night at home and I got some much better rest than I did at the hospital, even with having to pump a couple times through the night.

This morning we headed to Sick Kids. I was so happy to be with Walker and spend most of the day by his side, learning from his amazing nurses about everything that has been going on with him for the last 48 hours, touching him, talking to him, and getting to know him.

There was lot to learn today. Many cardiologists have looked at Walker's heart over the past two days and are working hard to come up with a very detailed plan for his heart surgery. In the next little while, he will need a CT scan done so they can get much clearer pictures of his heart before surgery. He had a full-body skeletal scan done to check that all the rest of his bones (other than the bones in his right arm) are healthy. We are waiting to hear the results of that scan. Yesterday he had ultrasounds done on his brain, kidneys, spine, abdomen. We are also still waiting to hear all of the results from this scan.

The most important thing we learned today is that Walker will be going for his esophageal/tracheal surgery first thing tomorrow morning, at 9:00am. Last night and today he has been getting a variety of different medications to prepare his little body for that. The surgery he is undergoing tomorrow will be to fix his esophageal atresia/trachealesophageal fistula (EA/TEF). I will try to explain a little bit about what this means.

Walker's esophagus is a dead end-- it does not attach to his stomach. This means that he currently is not able to eat and has a tube inserted down his throat that is constantly removing any secretions that may get into his esophagus. In addition, his trachea has an extra off-chute that connects to his stomach, which is not supposed to be there. The trachea is only supposed to connect to the lungs. So, the surgeons will try to detach the connection from the trachea to the stomach and patch it up, and then attach his esophagus to his stomach. They are not sure exactly how long Walker's surgery will take because of his condition-- he is very tiny, he has a heart condition, he is currently not breathing on his own, and they are not sure how his little body will respond to anesthesia and everything else. They anticipate, though, that it will take somewhere around 6 hours from start to finish.

After Walker's surgery tomorrow, he will need to be sedated for a couple of days to allow his esophagus to heal. The hope is that if the surgery is successful, within a little while Walker will be able to start being fed.

Please, please join us in praying for our sweet Walker tomorrow as he undergoes this surgery. Pray that the surgeons, doctors, and nurses working on him will make wise decisions and have skilled hands. Pray that they will be able to successfully complete what they set out to do. Pray that Walker's body will handle the anesthesia well, and that he will remain stable throughout the entire procedure. Pray that God will protect him and bring him through. Pray that he will recover well. Pray that the surgery will be a success so our little boy can start eating soon.

If you have commented on our posts or sent messages to us in the last couple of days, please know that we have read and appreciate every single one, even though we may not have time to respond. We have felt God holding us up through all of your prayers and it is hard to express how thankful we are for that. We are clinging tightly to our faith, trusting that God hears and carries all of our fears and worries, and that He is in perfect control of Walker's life.