Emails From Zach's Cardiocatheterization Hospitalization
Monday, January 7th:
Dear Friends and Family,
We wanted to let you know that Zachary has been officially scheduled for his heart surgery. The remaining hole in his heart did not close, and it’s optional to close it at this point. We elected to go ahead and close it because the benefits outweigh the risks. His oxygen levels (sats) have been in the mid 80’s at best and with the closure they should rise. Higher sats mean more oxygen and better growth and development. He’s doing great now, but he could do better.
We are staying in Dallas for this procedure, since a surgeon does not perform the cardioseal. It is performed by a specially trained cardiologist. We have a great doctor in Dallas who’s been doing these for the past several years. The FDA has only recently approved the cardioseal device. We’ve talked to the doctors at U of Michigan and they tell us although they’d be happy to perform the procedure, we are in good hands at Dallas.
We’ll go in to the hospital at 7:00 AM on Friday, January 25th. They’ll measure the pressures in his heart to see if this procedure will benefit him before beginning the placement of the cardioseal. If not, the procedure stops. If they see anything unusual or more complicated than expected, they’ll stop as well to discuss it with us.
His heart will not be stopped, and his chest will not be opened this time. They will thread soft tubes up into his heart from a small incision in his groin area. If all goes well (and we fully expect it to) he’ll stay in the hospital overnight and go home the next afternoon. He should be resuming his normal wild behavior almost immediately.
We’ll let you all know how he comes through the procedure. I’m sure he won’t be happy about it, but he’s a tough boy and he’ll get over it soon enough, perhaps with some bribery! (Trains work pretty good, so do trips to the park!)
Saturday, January 26th:
Dear Friends and Family,
We are home and having trouble getting Zachary to nap! He was running up and down the hallways at the hospital last night instead of sleeping, so we KNOW he must be tired (we certainly are). Must be his new energy!
His cardioseal placement went well. His sats are now varying in the low to mid 90’s. We’ll use those as a baseline to see what happens. The only thing a bit unexpected was the appearance of an unidentifiable vessel that looks to be coming off the coronary sinus. They could not see its purpose so they did not coil it. In reviewing the last cath notes from before his Fontan, they see that it was left alone then, too. If his sats change, they’ll take another look to see if any action (coiling) is needed. He goes back to his regular cardiologist in 6 – 8 weeks, and back to the cardioseal cardiologist for a fluoroscopy checkup of the cardioseal placement in 6 months.
All in all, it was a very good experience at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas. The only difficult part was immediately after in the recovery room when Zach awoke to find his legs restrained. He was nauseated from the anesthesia and needed medication to settle his tummy after throwing up his juice. He was not a happy camper for about two hours. He was a little happier when he was moved to the general floor. He promptly examined all his new “quiet toys” and videos and was then bored with his room. He went on a stroll to the train display and was nonstop since. We need to keep him from roughhousing for several days and bathing in a tub for one day. He will continue to take his twice a day dose of Captopril and nightly baby aspirin.
I’ve got some great photos from the device placement and also a diagram of Zach’s heart thanks to his cardiologist. I’ll let anyone interested know when I’m finished putting them on his web page.
Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers! We certainly appreciated them. You guys are great!
