Got admitted and up to a room fairly quick. The resident came in and chatted with me about the procedure while 4 RN's tried to get an iv into Owen. Chris was helping hold Owen steady. The sedatives started to take affect but he was still sad about it. On the 3rd try they got an iv thank goodness.
He was so sleepy from meds and being up early. He was pretty loopy. The awesome RN's let us come into the cath lab like last time. We've seen many familiar faces and one RN even took Ara around the unit enjoying some snuggles.
Chris carried him down to the cath lab and Owen was enjoying looking at the fish stickers on the ceiling. He asked to touch them haha he thought he could. He called them sharks too but that was the drugs talkin. They used his gtube for the nasty tasting ones so I'm glad it was there.
We said our goodbyes after some laughs with the nurses. Thank goodness Ara was sleeping on me in the carrier for almost all of this.
By then it was 930 and we headed for some breakfast and caffeine. Thanks mom for the bucks gift card! Went to the car to attempt to sleep. We mostly texted, rested, and tried not to think of the actual procedure.
They gave us a pager and it went off 2 hours into the cath. They said they were going to coil off 2 arteries, the right and left mammary arteries. They basically put a metal coil in to plug it up. With oxygen levels in the 80's like Owen, he has a tendency to adapt and grow extra vessels to help out a sub-optimal setup. He also makes more red blood cells to attempt to carry more oxygen. This adaptive measure can actually hurt him as it leads to elevated hemoglobin and hematocrit levels which increases his risk for stroke. Taking his daily aspirin helps but living like that isn't optimal.
So... If his heart stays the same...
1. He will continue to have saturation levels in the 80's
2. He will continue to have a higher risk for stroke
3. He will continue to be somewhat limited/short of breath on exertion
The cardiologist who completed his cath came and talked with us. He said his heart overall looks great but the right ventricle is pretty useless:(. We figured that was the case but we were hopeful it would be able to help him out. Owen is a good candidate for the Fontan procedure and Owen will be brought up in rounds the next week or two. Since it isn't emergent it can be up to us a bit as to when to schedule it.
We asked many questions about the Fontan, Fontan patients, etc. Dr. Tietel said that all of the surgeries that O has had are bridges to transplant. They all buy time. The most common question we get with O is "Is this his last surgery"? So the answer to that is yes, but the next line after that is transplant. The better the candidate the longer the Fontan can last.
He is sleeping off all the drugs and hasn't really moved or made a peep other than little snores every now and then. Ara is sleeping on me and she has done well minus a screaming session in the car.
Being here brings back a lot of memories, good and hard. Chris and I have been laughing reminiscing about some things we'd forgotten about.
That's all for now. Hoping to go home after he wakes, eats, and recovers. Probably won't be until 8/9pm. Thank you all for the positivity sent our way. We feel it.
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