All the nurses, doctors and surgeons have asked us the origin of Griar’s name. Therefore, I thought it best to fill everyone in. Shortly after finding out we were pregnant, Melissa and I sat down to watch a movie. The movie was called The Nanny Diaries and the son’s name was Grayer. Melissa and I both agreed that Grayer was a perfect match for Cael, our oldest son. We changed the spelling to be more phonetic for his grade school...

Grair is out of surgery. The process took longer than Dr. Hammel would have liked, but the end result is more or less what would he expected. Dr. Hammel was able to shrink the right artery (from 20 mm to 6 mm), find the left artery and reconnect and make larger, patch the hole and put in the new valve. A packaging mistake from the valve harvesting company caused a delay and forced Grair to stay on the bypass machine for about an hour longer than...

We have been receiving updates from the O.R. So far everything has been going as planned. The new homograph is being placed now. The next steps include an echocardiograph to confirm all the pieces got put back together, getting Grair off bypass and restarting his heart and making sure his blood clots correctly. Once these are done, he will be taken out of the O.R. and into the PICU. Thanks for your prayers and thoughts!

Grair went into surgery about 45 minutes ago (4:00 PM). The expected time is about four hours, however anything can happen. Dr. Hammel just met with us and has confidence and courage to ensure us the surgery will go as planned. After completion of the surgery, he will go to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). This is similar to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, but for children of all ages. The days in the PICU will determine Grair’s...

This is a great article explaining Grair’s heart issue. He has Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) with Absent Pulmonary Valve (APV) syndrome. http://www.emedicine.com/ped/topic2538.htm The article explains that TOF “is the most common cause of cyanotic heart disease and may occur at a rate of 1-3 cases per 1000 live births.” Grair has this. The article also goes on to explain that “TOF with absent pulmonary valve is rare, and...