Update #8: 7:00 PM

It ain't over till Cannon is in the ICU, but it sure is close!  We just met with Dr. Fraser so the main part of the surgery is complete.  They are closing up shop and making sure he's ready for ICU, taking X-rays, handing over responsibility, etc...  We should get to see Cannon around 8:30.

One point Dr. Fraser made clear is that this was a LONG surgery.  For a man that eats stress for breakfast, you could tell today was long and stressful.  But he's certainly doing what God called him to do, and I think God works a lot of his miracles through him.  The success of Cannon's surgery is a result God's grace, and Dr. Fraser's (and his team's) work.  We're not near out of the woods yet, we're just over the surgery hurdle.  Now comes the hurdle of recovery.  I'm sure there's as much risk in the next 24 hours as the last 12.  It seems like it to my small brain anyway.

Dr. Fraser's summary of the surgery:
1) We cancelled the last surgery on the 20th because there was another baby that might need a certain size and type of valve.  Dr. Fraser didn't want to proceed without having every possible size/type he'd need.  So he decided not to proceed on the 20th.  The valve he used today was the one he wouldn't have had that day.

2) I mentioned in a previous post that it seemed odd to send Cannon in for surgery when he seemed so healthy.  Everything was comfortable in life, why change?  Well, when they opened his chest up, they found his heart walls were beginning to harden and the heart was starting to enlarge.  Waiting longer would have been detrimental to his heart in the long term as well as making the surgery more difficult.  If we'd waited until we saw a sick Cannon, it would have been too late and we'd be doing a heart transplant or a funeral.

3) The aortic tricuspid valve was getting pulled into the heart because of an eddy effect caused by blood rushing through the hole between the ventricles.  Because we did this repair at this time, that valve shouldn't continue deteriorating or start leaking.

4) They had a hard time getting the bleeding under control but now have it wrapped up.

5) We'll have the pleasure of doing this again in 5 - 10 years.  Cannon will outgrow the conduit that goes from the heart to the lungs and that will have to be replaced.  It'll be full-blown open-heart surgery, complete with a heart/lung bypass machine.

6) The switch of the main vessels went well, no issues.

7) Patching the hole between the ventricles went well, no issues.

Thanks again everybody for your prayers!  We've been at relative peace today, and there's no way we could have been without our faith and your prayers.  We thank God, and we thank you!