The title says it all. Evan was amazing today and his heart cath went really well. It was an exhausting day for everyone.
We were supposed to be there at 7AM but we were running late as usual. We got up at 5 AM and were out the door at about 5:45. We arrived about 30 minutes late but it didn’t seem to make much difference. First we went to radiology where Evan got a chest X-ray that he was not too happy about. We’ve never had a chest x-ray like this one…. all strapped up.
We met with Shannon, a nurse practitioner, and went over general stuff like height, weight, meds, etc. Evan had an EKG and his pacemaker was checked out. At about 10AM we were moved to the pre-op area and started getting Evan ready. They took him at about 11 and we went to see Mia Wilson and grab a bite to eat.
Just after 1PM our pager went off to let us know he was done. The cardiologist performing the cath, Dr. Aiyagari came out and gave us the good news. Everything went really well and his heart looks great for surgery next week. The only bump they ran into (which the anesthesiologist had already came out and told us) was that the sedation they wanted to use did not work on Evan, it actually had the opposite effect and they had to intubate (breathing tube/ventilator) him and put him completely under. Apparently Versed is like candy to Evan and it just amps him up. This is something we’ll need to remember for the future as this isn’t the first time he’s reacted this way to Versed.
If you click on the image on the left you can see some of the images that they captured of Evan’s heart and arteries. In the top left you can clearly see Evan’s pulmonary arteries, these are the ones that provide blood to the lungs. In next weeks surgery the superior vena cava (the large vein that empties the blood from the top half of the body to the heart) will be removed from the heart and attached to this artery to provide blood to the lungs instead of the shunt that was placed during the Norwood procedure. You can read more about all three operations here. Dr. Hirsch (the surgeon that performed the Norwood and will be performing next weeks surgery) came and talked to us and was extremely pleased with the size of his pulmonary arteries. Yay Evan!
We got back to see Evan at about 2:45 pm and he was very awake but clearly still sedated and in need of some sleep. He fought off sleep until 4:30 when we got him unhooked from everything and headed over to see the Wilson family and then head home. They hold patients for 4+ hours after a heart cath to make sure that there is no bleeding at the catheter site (Evan’s right leg, femoral artery and vein). During this time we had a few visitors including Nurse Bethany and Nurse Practitioner Staci. Bethany took care of Evan quite a bit when he was there for the first surgery. Staci checked out his pacemaker again and another EKG was done both with the pacemaker turned on and off. The doctor’s need to determine if they are going to replace Evan’s pacemaker next week or wait until surgery #3, the Fontan, which will occur at about 2 years old. If you recall, Evan’s current pacemaker controls his ventricle only and at a set pace, it does not increase/decrease like ours would when we get excited. This one was installed because it’s much smaller and all that an infant needs. The intention was always to replace it with one that senses the atrial beat and tells the ventricle to beat just like yours or mine, it’s just a matter of when.
Right now we are scheduled for first case on Tuesday, which means we need to be at the hospital at about 6:15AM. Yuck. Typical stay for surgery #2 is 5-10 days, and we’re told this is the surgery that kids recover the quickest from. I’m interested in hearing from other heart families how their hemi-Fontan went and if their kid had the ‘hemi-headaches.’ How long did they last? How bad was it? Did you just give tylenol regularly, did it help?
Here are some pictures from the day. Everyone have a safe and happy new year!
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