Cath Results

Today Jack had a heart catheterization at PCMC.  We had to leave by 5:15am to be there on time and amazingly Jack was all smiles. He played with the toys, made some friends, was really excited to get his very own wrist band (see below), kept asking if it was his turn for a check up, and was thrilled when he got to go on a wagon ride. He sang ABC's with me as he drifted off to sleep in the cath lab. It makes it so much easier to put him through tough things when he has such a good attitude.

Jack and his very own wristband

Checking daddy's eyes while waiting.

Watching shows in recovery

For the cath they thread a wire through his neck and through the artery in his leg to check his pressures and get images in preparation for his surgery.  That means afterward he had to lay flat and keep his leg still for 4 hours to prevent major bleeding. I thought it would be tricky, but he was so tired he just watched tv and was pretty content.

The results of the cath showed that the pressures in his lungs are a little high, but still within range that he qualifies for the next surgery, so that is good.  He had a few collateral veins and arteries that had grown as the body tries to compensate for his quirky blood flow, but Dr. Day choose to only coil off 1 of them as the others don't seem to be creating problems. The only bad news we got is that there seems to be some narrowing along his aorta. It's not a huge problem in a normal heart, but while Drs Day and Puchalski decided not to balloon it, they said that Dr. Kaza may decide when he gets back in town that it needs to be ballooned before surgery which would mean another trip to the cath lab next week. I really, really, really hope that is not the case and that he decides he can fix it during surgery. As much fun as we had today, I'll pass on a repeat anytime soon

Two more weeks until Fontan.