Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Pink is Better than Blue

One of the interesting parts of this job is learning fancy doctor words that make me sound way smarter than I am. For example.... Before surgery, Hewa was quite cyanotic, but now his lips and fingers are much more pink as his heart  is able to properly circulate blood. Are you impressed? Probably not, but that's ok.

Today we went and visited Hewa at the hospital. Due to the severity of their heart conditions, it's not uncommon for these children to have a bluish tint to their lips and fingers where the body unable to deliver enough oxygen. This was particularly true in Hewa's case. His surgery yesterday fixed the circulation problem and when we walked in to visit him today, I was immediately struck by how different he looked. The pink color to lips was remarkable! You would never realize he had a serious heart problem if you looked at him now. It's truly amazing.

The children are kept sedated for a few days while their body recovers from the surgery. Because of this as well as the tubes running into all different parts of them delivering medicine, giving blood transfusions, and removing fluid around the heart, they cannot eat or drink anything for a couple days. This was not ok with Hewa though who was constantly demanding juice! It is actually good to see him so insistent. I would be more worried if he was completely docile. The fight in him that wants juice is just what he needs to push through and recover quickly.

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