Friday, 6/3

Dinky continues to amaze. He had a great night last night and seemed very comfortable. I wish you could see the incision on his chest. It's so tiny, a little band-aid would do. And to think that through that tiny thing they were able to get to his aorta and do the work needed. It truly is amazing. We talked to the surgery fellow here about it today. Usually for this surgery they had to do a full thoracotomy (which Dinky has had 2 of already) where they completely open the chest wall. The chief of surgery here developed the technique they were able to use that avoids that. Dinky is about the 3rd baby here to have this type of surgery in the last 11 months. We are SO thankful to our surgeon.

So, true to their word, they extubated him this afternoon (removed the breathing tube). They did this at 2:15 and so far so good. We are cautiously optimistic because there was the one other time where he was extubated for 4 hours. I think if he can make it through the night without getting reintubated I will breathe a sigh of relief. I will stay with him again tonight to keep a close watch! He's on something called vapotherm which is a heated and humidified oxygen. He's on 5 liters right now, which is a lot, but hopefully will go down tomorrow.

Again, thank you all so much for your support.