April 9, 2012 - Heart Cath

Hello everyone. Caden's cath (for his heart) and scope (on his throat) went well. Caden was a rock-star for pre-op. We checked in at 9:30am, after checking vitals, talking with doctors, and giving him some versed (the happy, sleepy, goofy medicine) Caden was off and surgery was underway by 11:30am. He was scoped by ENT Dr. Beste first. The scope noted the left vocal cord is still paralyzed, the right vocal cord is slightly compensating. Dr. Beste said by age 3 the vocal cords will stay as is. It will not improve, but we do need to watch for more stridor (heavy breathing ….lack of oxygen getting to lungs) or issues as time goes on. Otherwise, we have a nice baseline with this scope if things do change over time. The heart cath was the second procedure. They told us they would be going through the groin and the neck . This allowed them to see and get all the pictures and measures they needed to prepare for the next open heart in May (the Fontan). We continued to get updates as the day went on from the surgical nurse, and she did let us know Dr. Pellech noticed some collateral veins that had formed they needed to coil off to allow more blood flow to the heart. We were actually able to see Caden's cath from '09, compared to today and it was amazing how big this collateral vein had gotten. Dr. Pellech said almost half of all kiddo's have collaterals, its not that it isn't that uncommon, it is just another step in the cath lab. He did have another collateral vein but the location was not to the heart therefore it wasn't as concerning because it would be taken care of once Caden had the next surgery. Caden finished surgery around 3:00pm and we are still in recovery with him now. We are hoping to be released around 10-11:30 tonight if all goes well. We are planning on driving home tonight so he can wake up to his buddy Griffin in the morning and have some sense of normalcy. We continue to pray for a good rest of his recovery so we do indeed get to head home.

Thanks for all the prayers and continued support and a big thanks to Grandma Sue, Grandpa Cliff and auntie Kristen for lending a hand with Griffin while we were with Caden.

Love,

Melissa

** Below is a quick video of Dr.Pellech showing the before and after pictures and what collaterals look like and why they must be coiled off to allow more blood flow to Caden. The little circle things are little "ties" that are metal. They use them to tie the sternum closed after open heart surgeries.