Catheterization Tomorrow - Surgery Thursday

Well, it looks like we have a very scary stretch of days ahead of us. As we suspected, Matthew was admitted into the PICU this afternoon. When we arrived at the cardiologists office Matthew oxygen saturation was back up into the 70's. The cardiologist decided to go ahead and order an echocardiogram to see if there were any emergent issues that needed to be addressed before the heart catheterization tomorrow. The echo gave us some disappointing news. Apparently, the shunt that was placed during his first surgery has narrowed from 3.5 millimeters to 2.8 millimeters. This could be do to a number of different things that we don't understand. It also showed that Matthew's left pulmonary artery is more narrow than his right and his aorta is starting to become narrow again.

The new objective with the heart catheterization tomorrow will be to take measurements for Matthew's next surgery and possibly use a balloon to stretch out the narrowing that is occurring in the left pulmonary artery and aorta. The cardiologist will now be performing the heart cath with Matthew's heart surgeon present (this wasn't the plan originally) and they told us they are going to keep on open mind tomorrow because they really don't know what to expect.

They did tell us that Matthew will not be going home after the heart cath now and will more than likely undergo his next open heart surgery this Thursday. What they don't know at this point is will they be able to do the Stage 2 surgery or will they need to push the Stage 2 back a few months and repeat the first surgery instead.

I almost feel numb as I type this email. We just can't believe this is happening already or that there may be new issues that need to be addressed when he has his next surgery. Please continue to keep Matthew in your prayers.