Evan Almighty: ready, set...

Just a heads up that all is set for next week's surgery. The insurance is approved, surgery scheduled, Evan's healthy, it all looks like we're a go.

A reminder of the nitty gritty...

Surgery is being done at Mott's Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor, Tuesday, August 11. Derek and I will be heading to Ann Arbor Monday morning for a day of pre-op testing (again...), then a night at a local hotel with Evan, and back Tuesday for an 11(ish)am surgery.

Surgery will be done by his same surgeon from last year. They will be repairing or replacing his mitral valve - no decision until he gets in there to see it all. I'm hoping for a repair, but we know even with that he will more than likely still need it replaced at some point in his lifetime. Life changes a bit if/when they replace the valve - Evan will be on blood thinners and there's a whole world of changes that's involved with that. I don't know all of them yet, as I'm waiting to learn details when we need to know them. I do know he'll have restricted activities and have a lot of blood work done (I think, weekly).

Evan's stay is probably 7-10 days. Last surgery he was given the same timeline, did remarkable well and was still there for 10 days. So, I'm planning on up to a 2 week stay in case there are any setbacks. While Evan's in PICU, we'll both be staying at the Ronald McDonald house (once a room is available). When he's moved to the floor, I'll stay in room with him and Derek will hole up at Ronald McDonald.

This week, I'm trying to not let my nerves get the best of me, getting prepped for our trip and spending some extra quality time with Evan. I'm taking the end of the week off work for a little "down" time. Life's been pretty normal the last few weeks. Evan's getting to be such a big boy, my baby is all but gone...

I'll update again a bit closer with specific prayer requests for while we're in Ann Arbor. For now, please pray that Evan stays healthy (no bugs allowed going in for this) and for Derek and I's nerves. We're ready to get this over with and try to get back to our (semi-normal) life.