Out of surgery

I finally got the call from Igor late this afternoon at about 5.30pm. The surgery was finally over. He sounded very positive on the phone and managed to get everything done and was pleased with the results. I did have to wait another 1.5 hours before I could go and see Raffy as the anaesthetist had to finish up and then they had to get her settled back in the room.

She is looking fantastic considering what she went through today and is still surprising all of us with her resilience. Her whole body is being fully supported at the moment and she is also still being cooled to minimise any swelling in her brain. Fingers crossed she has a great night tonight.

As we have been in ICU so long now, I have formed some quite close friendships with various staff members. One of those is Lindsay. She is such a lovely lady, always bubbling over with laughter and happiness and will always liven up my day or cheer me up when we are having bad days. Lindsay had been sick last week so hadn't seen Raphaela and didn't know what had happened so it was a shock for her to arrive at work to find Raffy back on ecmo and in surgery. She even went into the theatre to check on her. Anyway, today she had bought Raffy a present in to work with her. It is the Alice in Wonderland book with a special message she had written in it just for Raphaela. Such a simple thing but it really touched my heart and I can't wait to read it to her tomorrow.

When we were in room 4, there was a 5yo boy called Ali in the bed next to us. He was born with a healthy heart but a few months ago he got an infection in his heart. He was flown down from Sydney to await a heart transplant. He slowly deteriorated and was put on ecmo to wait for a heart to become available. Unfortunately a heart never came and sadly Ali passed away a few days ago. Once again I am so thankful that we still have Raphaela with us and am praying that she can pull through this latest crisis.

This whole experience has really opened my eyes to what is important in life. I want all of you to give your kids extra cuddles, tell them you love them and please don't sweat the small stuff.