Post-Cath Report

What a whirlwind of three days we've experienced! I'm sorry that I didn't update on the cath results sooner, but after we were released from the hospital on Thursday, it was time for a nap, then another rushed day on Friday to get home for cake and ice cream for Tim's birthday. I had typed out the pre-op info while we were waiting for Natalie to get out of the cath, but was interrupted by the pager going off announcing that the doctor was ready to talk with us.

Natalie did great going into her heart cath. She was a little apprehensive to start out with, but then when she realized that she was being doted on by the staff, she warmed up. I was able to suit up and go back to the cath lab with her until she "went to sleep." The nurse anesthetist said that she had a surprise for her when she got into the cath lab and there laying on her little pillow was a white little kitty. That was just the thing Natalie needed to get her through and ever since, she's been carrying her little kitty around.

They gave Natalie orange gas to go to sleep and she didn't fight it at all. (She must save all that feistyness for her parents and siblings.) All the invasive procedures, like IV's, are done after she's asleep so she didn't remember any pokes-so nice!

As the wait began, Tim and I went to get some breakfast. We had to be at the hospital at 6:15AM (that was 5:15AM our time) which just seemed like a continuation of the day before. Then we headed up to the Family Resource Center where I got on the computer and Tim did his Sudoku. It's amazing how fast a little pager can make you jump when you're waiting. The pager went off and we packed up to head back down to the surgery center.

(Quick lesson of what a cardiac catheterization looks like on a picture-A small tube is threaded through the blood vessels, vein or artery, until they get to the desired area where they want to look. Then they inject a dye that is radio-opaque, meaning it shows up as a dark area on x-rays. Since blood carries it in the direction that it is traveling, you can see where the vessel is taking the blood and how large the vessel is.)

We met with Dr. Jones who presented us with pictures of what he had done. He said that her pulmonary arteries looked really good. There wasn't any narrowing or stenosis that he could see. The pulmonary arteries are the blood vessels carrying the blue blood to the lungs to pick up oxygen. The Glenn site looked good too. Below is a picture from the cath that Dr. Jones enhanced with drawing in the vessels around the lungs and Glenn site.

(The little bump on the LT PA is scar tissue from the Sano shunt that they placed when she was two weeks old and then removed at her Glenn surgery.)

What Dr. Jones did find was a blood vessel that came off of the innominate vein that was dilated and atrophied. It was allowing a large amount of blood to bypass going directly to the lungs through the superior vena cava.

Imagine you have to fill up a large tub with water. You have a small bucket with a hole in it. You fill the bucket up, but as you run with your bucket of water to the tub, you are losing water the whole way there. It takes you longer to fill up the tub because of the hole in your bucket.

So what Dr. Jones did was take a mesh plug to occlude the extra vessel so all the blood would be directed to the lungs.

What a difference that made! Natalie came out of recovery with an oxygen saturation of 90%!!! I don't think I've ever seen her that high. Her feet were pink and lips were red! I couldn't believe it. I was skeptical thinking that it must be that the anesthesiologist gave her something that increased her sats. I've become so used to seeing Miss Natalie with dusky gray feet and purple lips that her color amazed me. I thought, the real test will be when she starts to run and play. We made it with her walking through the airport with pink lips (even though she still breaths heavily). Going down to Seattle she would want to walk through the airport, but would stop to lie on the benches every twenty yards or so to get caught up. Her oxygen saturations still dip when she is active, but not as low. I keep looking at her feet when she's playing...they don't make it to the egg plant purple color variant anymore. It's so nice. I have to think that she feels better too.

We did discuss the Fontan surgery with Dr. Jones. He said that this cath procedure should give her at least another year. "The longer you can wait, the better," he said. He said that once you do the Fontan, the count-down begins as to how long her heart will last. I still have a lot of questions about this, but am confident at this time that we've done the right thing and will continue to live life to it's fullest...while we wait.