Kirsten's Operation

Kirsten has now had her operation, is back home and doing well.

The operation took four and a half hours and went as planned. Carrying her down to theatre and then leaving her there asleep was the most difficult thing I have ever had to do. Finding things to do for the next four hours was very hard, we walked full circuits of each floor of the Bull Ring shopping centre both with our mobile phones in our hands, just in case.

When we finally got the call at seven minutes past one, we still didn't know if everything was OK. Seeing her lying on a big bed with so many wires and tubes sticking out of her wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. She spent twenty-four hours in PICU and was then transferred back to the ward and into the High Dependency Unit. She then spent forty-eight hours on HDU where she was weaned of oxygen and morphine.

After the first day on HDU, she was more alert and we could see our little girl coming back. She was then moved back onto the main ward where she improved daily. On Sunday (5 days after the operation) she had her chest drains removed and this made it much easier to pick her up and change her nappy.

The next day she was allowed to go home. It took about a week for her to get fully back to her normal self and get back to a normal sleep pattern.

There are photos of Kirsten before and after the operation at the following link (Not for the faint hearted).
Kirsten's operation photos