Travis' heart had good function and good pressures. Unfortunately, they saw narrowing in three places: the aortic arch, the pulmonary artery, and the sano shunt. The most extensive was in the shunt. They were able to balloon and stent that open. As for the the pulmonary artery...they plan to wait on that as it is not extensive. For the aortic narrowing, they wanted to attempt to stent it open but the machine broke. So, the plan is that we will need to come back for another heart cath procedure in 3 months. Since his heart function is good, they are comfortable waiting until then to try to open the stent. The Dr. said she was probably going to need to have him come back in 3 months anyway to close off some collaterals that have opened up by his pulmonary arteries.
In three months, they will attempt to open the aorta. Sometimes, they can do this in the cath lab and sometimes it requires reconstruction in the O.R. If they are unsuccessful in the cath lab, Travis' surgeon will need to decide if he wants to move up the Glenn/Fontan procedure and include the arch reconstruction OR do the reconstruction as a separate surgery (I presume that he would choose the ladder since the Glenn/Fontan combo is a big deal already). Again, the goal with Travis is to keep his heart function and Oxygen saturations stable until he gets to an age/weight that would be optimal for the Glenn.Fontan together (originally, we were told that would be 17-20 months old, so June-ish).
We will be staying overnight as the doctors want to make sure that the ballooning of the shunt doesn't do anything wacky. Please pray that he wakes up and is not in a lot of pain. We are waiting in the waiting room to see him.
Thanks for your prayers and good thoughts!
P.S. Have I mentioned that life with a heart hero is like riding a crazy roller coaster? It's crazy!
Hope the big guy wakes up happy and pain free!!!!
ReplyDeleteThinking of you guys,
Kellee
Thanks for the update Nicole. Zoe had her BT shunt stented open before her Hemi-Fontan and she has left pulmonary narrowing and some aortic narrowing. Travis and Zoe must be long lost twins. Our cardio is keeping an eye on her LPA narrowing and the aortic narrowing. Apparently her LPA narrowing is much worse than her aortic narrowing, neither of which require any intervention at this point. I'm hoping they will grow with her and we won't have to do anything. I'm sure Travis will be just fine after any normal cath procedure. Give him a kiss from Zoe. Hang in there DiCarlo's; the rollercoaster (for today) should be slowing down now.
ReplyDeleteHeart Hugs,
Stacey
Thinking of you guys wishing for a speedy recovery! Go team Travis~
ReplyDeleteCristy Dockery