Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Day 6 Update

The results from Sam's cardiac catheter yesterday confirmed he is a good candidate for the Glenn procedure.  We were told they might move the surgery to today, then we were told it would stay on Thursday because they couldn't reschedule the other patient, BUT then Stephen and I were woken up by the surgeon's nurse practitioner to tell us they rescheduled for this morning!

The Glenn shunt reroutes blood flow to and in Sam's heart to remedy the oxygen saturation problem. Dr. Mendeloff, the surgeon, will also do a septectomy to create a larger hole in his atrial septum to help with oxygenated and unoxygenated blood mixing to increase oxygen saturation. The septectomy will require Sam be on heart and lung bypass, something we weren't originally planning on. 

They left the breathing tube in all day yesterday because they wanted to keep him sedated. Every time he even wiggled a little, his sats would drop to the 60s. They put an NG tube (feeding tube) in late last night just to keep his stomach working a little. The plan was to gradually wean him off the ventilator and extubate this morning around 4:00, but his sats weren't stable, so they kept him intubated. This sounds more serious than it apparently is, but he didn't have a pulse in his right foot until this morning. The femoral artery, the one they used for the cath, was most likely spasming, which resulted in the pulse loss. They said this is common in about half of babies that have the cardiac cath.  When the attending did rounds at about 8:00 this morning, he said he could find a pulse, so that's good. 

We have met with the anesthesiologist, Dr. Mendeloff, and his nurse practitioner this morning, and had all our questions answered. 

Sam got to meet two Dallas Cowboys, Dez Bryant and Orlando Scandrick, right before surgery. Sam went back to the OR a little before 10:00. 

We have met three other families whose babies are in the CHSU with various heart conditions. It has been so comforting to talk with other parents who are in similar situations. Stephen's parents and my parents are on their way into town to support us. We are well loved!

No comments:

Post a Comment