Cath Update

Yesterday was the big cathiterization day for Mia.  This procedure will tell us when her upcoming open heart surgery will be.  Everything went well and we got wonderful results.

We got to the hospital at 6 am and Mia was fantastic leading up to the cath.  She got some "goofy juice" about 30 minutes she was taken back and she was just hilarious.  Art and I got to back into the cath lab with her while they put her to sleep.  That was an interesting experience.  They only let you go back after your child is 1 and this was the first procedure Mia had since we've been able to.

We were updated every hour by phone on her progress.  Amazingly when we got the first call they already had her IV and breathing tube in and had already gotten the catheter in both her neck and groin.

Next call they let us know that they had made the decision NOT to balloon or stent anything and they were then going to be working on coiling the collaterals.  They also told us briefly that the pressures in her lungs and arteries all looked good.

The next update we got was from the cath doctor himself after he was finished.  They only had to coil one collateral (we were shocked).  Everything else looked good.  She does have narrowing of the left artery, but nothing that needs intervention immediately.  She also has narrowing where the superior vena cava and the right pulmonary artery meet.  It almost looks like a 45-90 degree turn that is slightly pinched.  They didn't feel it was necessary to intervene in that area either because it will be patched at the time of surgery.

We couldn't be happier with the results that they found.  Everything us much, much better than we were expecting.  So now the question still remains as to when her surgery will be.  Our cardiologist told us that it still could kind of go either way, this summer or next summer.  Because Mia has a fall birthday and they don't "elective" surgery in the fall, winter, and part of spring months, we're limited on when it can be done.

Our cardiologist is going to present Mia at the cardiology conference meeting on Monday, June 3rd (of course it so happens this coming Monday is Memorial Day, so it can't happen then).  At that time everyone will weigh in on what is best for Mia's care.  Her surgeon will essentially make the final call.  So we wait some more.  But ya know, I'll wait as long as is needed for them to make the best decision for Mia.  Especially now that we know, for sure, that she's doing very very well considering the circumstances!