He's Out

We just met with Dr. Balzer and got the report and viewed the cath. He has considerable narrowing in the pulmonary artery going to the right lung. That is where they ballooned and the balloon made no difference in pressures. It went right back to the way it was. During the cath, his pressures in the RV were about 2/3 of the LV. This is too high, but also a bit misleading. During sedation, pressure drops from around 100 to 70, so a reading in the RV of 55-58 seems really high compared with 70, but not so high compared to 100. He talked to Dr. Bromberg during the cath and decided not to go ahead with a stent at this time! Yay! He said he can probably even go home tonight! We are thrilled. We follow up with Dr. Bromberg in a month. He thought we'd most likely do another cath in a year to two years, but Dr. Bromberg will decide that based on other tests over time. I asked how the RV-PA conduit looked and he said it looks good and if it stays as good as it is now that he can go 5-7 years before having it replaced! Initially, after surgery, we were told 3 mos-3 years, so this is outstanding news. No more open heart surgery for at least five years (for now, anyway). He also has two leaky valves but the leaks appear to be mild at this point. I told him that they had been calling it Severe Neo-Aortic Insufficiency and he said that over time with improved heart function, that the leaks can improve and that appears to be the case. Yay again! Also, we could see the two residual VSD's but they are very small and pose no problems to him.

Thanks for the prayers. Now we just need prayers that he'll wake up and then that he'll be sleepy again for the length of time that he has to lay flat (six hours, I think). They said they can give him something to help, but we're dreading keeping him happy and flat for that long.

Erin and Greg