Sara's Heart Cath Surgery

Last month Sara had an MRI, and the results showed she had low blood flow to the lungs through her Glen. So to find out why they did a Cardiac Catherization. The Cath was about 2 hrs long, and they found the same result. There was still low blood flow to the lungs because there are colateral veins and almost no forward flow through the right ventricle in her heart to the lungs. They measured pressures and they were all normal praise the Lord! 

At one point when Sara was recovering she has a shivering/shaking attack, a warm blanket seemed to help, and then she fell asleep. While asleep she turned very very purple and mottled all over, and they checked everything and found he oxygen sats were not low, but her tempurature, blood pressure and Heart Rate was rising. So we put her back on Oxygen, gave her Tylenol & Advil, after about an hour everything they checked was lowering back to normal. So I asked the nurse when do you see a fever rise up and rise down within 2 hrs? She said never! Often there's things that happen after surgery that are unexplained, and every Dr. has a different opinion about what's going on. We're just glad she was able to nap and wake up her normal self! 

God is good! Sara is doing so well, having fun playing with Hailey. Hailey was an amazing support to Sara, holding her hand and cuddling, coloring with her in her bed, just being so sweet to her.

So we can pray now for their discussion time on Tuesday, they are having a conference about what to do next with Sara. Our Dr. will call on Tuesday and let us know what they come up with. The options are to (1) wait to do either of these options or (2) deccide to go ahead with: shunting another vein to drain into her lungs called Fontan, or (3) put her on the heart transplant list. Either way we know God is taking care of us, and we can face anything in his strength. God gives us peace, we praise him for that! Many thanks to friends & family, your prayers are greatly appreciated!

Psalm 29:11 "The Lord will give strength to His people; the Lord will bless his people with peace."

Sara's Cardiac Cath

I just found out today that Sara is scheduled for next Wednesday October 26th. The Heart Cath will give the doctors more information about how Sara's heart is doing, measuring pressures in all her heart chambers and her pulmonary artery. Please pray the surgery goes as planned and that Sara recovers well. We'll be in overnight for sure, but after that it depends on Sara's oxygen sats, and heart rate returning back to normal.

Sara's MRI

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides good contrast between the different soft tissues of the body, which makes it especially useful in imaging the brain, muscles, the heart, and cancers compared with other medical imaging techniques such as computed tomography (CT scan) or X-rays. Unlike CT scans or traditional X-rays, MRI uses no inonizing radiation.

Sara had an MRI on Thursday September 22nd, and it was an all day event. We were up early and left home at 5:15am. We arrived at 6:30am and waited for them to let us in at 7am. By 7:30 she was ready to go, and getting an IV and put under. Once she was asleep, they intubated her and the proceedure was 2 hours. She took a long time to wake up, and once she was muttering out words and sounds it was a half hour before she even opened up her eyes! It was nice to hold her as she woke up because she was ready to get out of that bed and "Play" as she'd yell out! With out having control of her limbs and head this idea of "Playing" that she was set on, would have been very hard to do! We were moved up to the Cardiac unit on 4C4, around 11:30am. She was wide awake and not wanting to rest, so Tree House TV kept her entertained. She was so hungry that she ate and drank whatever was in front of her! Her oxygen Saturations were down even while on oxygen, and it took her a while to get back to "normal for Sara" (about 85%) before they started to wean her off it. We waited until about 3pm to see the resident Doctor, and he got the discharge papers going so we could go home. We left around 4pm, and were happy to be home at 5:30pm. 

The reason our Cardiologist wanted to do an MRI on her heart is to get a good look. She hasn't had one in the past, only Cardiac Caths which are more invasive and usually take Sara a week to recover from.

The result of the MRI shows that there is about 1/2 the blood flow through the Glen to the pulmonary artery. So this means there isn't enough blood flowing into her lungs, and this is why she has blue/purple lips often. They would like to see if the cause is collateral veins of if it is pressures in her pulmonary artery. Now they want to do a Cardiac Cath surgery sometime in the next few months to figure out why there is low blood flow to her lungs. The team of Cardiologist at the Cardiac Unit at the Stollery Hospital had a conference about Sara's MRI and decided on scheduling a Cath. After she has the Cath they will discuss and determine what will be the next step for Sara.

We are so thankful for all your prayers, we are so encouraged by all of you! Happy Thanksgiving!