Surgery on Tuesday

Pierce's big surgery is scheduled for 8 am on Tuesday morning.

On Friday, we went in for pre-op and were able to meet the surgeon (Pierce's primary surgeon is on maternity leave and so his case got passed to the chief of neurosurgery). The appointment went so well and we have total confidence that Pierce is in great hands.

We did learn even more about the procedure, which I'll admit, was hard to listen to. It is called an open craniotomy cyst fenestration. This means they'll make a large incision in the back of his head/neck area, remove a part of Pierce's skull, which will give them direct access to the cyst. They will then open up the cyst by making a large hole in it to allow it to drain. Then they will replace his skull and close him up. If all goes well, the surgery will take about 2-3 hours. Pierce will be heavily sedated for a bit afterwards to allow his body to heal and to hopefully avoid him being in pain. He'll be taken to the ICU for at least 24 hours and then, depending on how he wakes up, he'll move to a regular hospital room for a few more days before discharge.

Here's how you can pray specifically for us on Tuesday:
1. Pray for the surgery to go smoothly with no unexpected bleeding or other complications.
2. Pray for Pierce to wake up easily from the anesthesia (a lot of former preemies have trouble with this one).
3. Pray that Pierce would not be in as much pain as expected.
4. Pray against infection. Because this is an open craniotomy, there is a greater chance for infection. Please pray that Pierce would not develop an infection. Also pray that his current shunt (which they will not be doing anything with during this surgery) will continue to function properly.
5. Finally, pray that this works! There is a chance, though small, that the cyst could return. Pray that this will not happen.

We will keep everyone updated on the blog. To keep it easy, we've added a tweet bar to the right. We'll post short updates from the hospital there. Thank you for praying for our boy!

Nik, Lindsay and Pierce