Surgery scheduled for Tuesday afternoon

Alisha just learned from the doctor that Roscoe's surgery is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday). She didn't get an official time yet, but learned this because she happened to be in the room when the doctor spoke with the respiratory therapist. They scheduled the surgery after doing an ultrasound on Roscoe's lungs today and a heart echo yesterday. Alisha snapped some pictures as they wheeled Roscoe down the hallway to the ultrasound machine. She said his eyes lit up with seeing all of the moving objects and new sights in the hallway.

She said she was laughing hard at the picture below, because he was peeking out from behind the blanket. Maybe this means he'll really like playing hide-and-seek once he's at home with a dad who will play it with him?

The good news is that they scheduled the surgery, which means that they are confident in the progress they've seen in Roscoe. It's also good news for Roscoe because he'll be able to eat again after the surgery is completed. The bad news is that the surgery carries minor risk due to Roscoe's pulmonary hypertension. 

One of the surgeons spoke with me and explained why his pulmonary hypertension would be a risk for stomach surgery. The surgeon said that they will need to put Roscoe to sleep and use a ventilator to keep his lungs moving. If Roscoe's lungs sense that the body isn't getting enough oxygen, the blood vessels in the lungs will shrink to push blood out of the part of the lung that isn't working. If this happens, they will have to use nitric oxide or other treatments from UCSF to dilate the blood vessels in his lungs. It's a minor risk, but it just adds complication to what is normally a relatively easy surgery. As always, please pray that God watches over Roscoe and continues this great work of physical salvation that he's begun to carry out in our little boy.