Procedures and Surgeries

Friday afternoon about 2pm Elizabeth had the cardiac catheter procedure to address the Pulmonary Atresia. Turns out that she has quite a bit of muscle right in front of the pulmonary valve, so that's why so the blood is not getting through. So, in effect, the procedure ending up being exploratory if nothing else.

This means that sometime this upcoming week, she will be having heart surgery. The surgeons will go in and create a new passage way from the right ventricle to the pulmonary artery, basically by-passing the valve and the aforementioned blocking muscle. Since they will be working in her heart, they will also 'patch' (cardiologist's word) the hole connecting the left and right ventricles (part of the Tetralogy of Fallot issue). No sense in waiting the normal 6-12 months to do that surgery if they are already in there.

We find out when the surgery will be tomorrow (Monday) night. Each Monday afternoon, the docs get together to plan out the weeks surgeries/procedures. As soon as we know a time, we'll let you all know.

As for right now, Elizabeth is doing great. Her skin tone is wonderful (lots of color), she is feeding well and her oxygen saturation level (the big issue in all of this) is fantastic. Yesterday was the highest it's been. And all of her plumbing is working just like it's supposed to. :-)

I even got to feed her yesterday! Woo hoo! It was great. My dad took a bunch of pictures, so as soon as I get them from him, I'll post em. I took a bunch of pictures yesterday too, so if I have the energy, I'll post em later. She looks wonderful. She is stable and content and we like it that way. :-)

Thanks again for all your prayers.