Care4Conway: They're Done!!!! He's off bypass

Thursday, August 27, 2009

They're Done!!!! He's off bypass

The NP just came back in to say they are done. It looks like they repaired the mitral with a ring??? and they are doing his echo now. Dr. Bove will be the next one we will see and he'll give us the full report of what he did/how it went. This must be a good sign that he's done so quickly. She said it will probably be in the next hour that they get done with the echo and close him and then move him up here to the ICU. Once he's in ICU, it will be another hour or so to get him settled and stable enough for us to visit. Praise God!

7 comments:

Sarah Beams said...: Praising God with you!! I have been holding you in my heart each and every moment!! Sending you love, constant prayers and a long-distant hug!
Blessings and Peace -
Sarah; August 27, 2009 at 12:28 PM
Unknown said...: Woo Hoo!
Great news!; August 27, 2009 at 12:48 PM
Diane said...: That's great news. Andera's surgery went quicker also. Praying for a quick recovery. Way to go Conway.

Diane
Fellow Heart Mom; August 27, 2009 at 12:48 PM
Aaron and Erica said...: Wonderful news...thank you dear Heavenly Father!; August 27, 2009 at 12:49 PM
Lisa P said...: Yeahhhh! I've been refreshing your page all morning to make sure I'd get all the latest updates. Spent some time reading about mitral rings for valve support, and it sounds like this kind of repair is done a lot and provides really good outcomes!! I could give you scoop on everything I read, but I have the feeling you are going to be hearing it from the "master" himself very soon if you haven't already!! Keeping fingers crossed for a completely boring and uneventful recovery :-)

Lisa P; August 27, 2009 at 12:51 PM
stove said...: That's great news! I'm so glad it went so fast and he didn't have to be on bypass long. Looking forward to hearing what Dr. Bove says!

Steph; August 27, 2009 at 1:11 PM
Donna Beckemeier said...: Almost ready to exhale......
But still holding you all in prayer.; August 27, 2009 at 1:12 PM

Conway's Heart Story

Conway's Heart Story

Conway David Beckemeier was born on March 3, 2007. His heart defects went undetected during pregnancy and he was diagnosed at two days of age with L-TGA, a large VSD, sub pulmonic stenosis and Ebstein’s Anomaly. Just before turning six months of age, he underwent open heart surgery to reroute the bloodflow in his heart. Called the "double switch", this procedure is the most technically challenging for pediatric cardio-thoracic surgeons to perform. The version of the double switch that Conway received on 8/28/07 was called the Rastelli-Senning with VSD closure and sub pulmonic resection. He suffered a grand mal seizure following the surgery that lasted over an hour and had several other post-op setbacks including surgical heart block, which required another operation on 9/18/07 to insert a pacemaker. Following surgery and such a long hospital stay, Conway developed an oral aversion (he would not eat) and he was 100% NG tube fed for eight months. He also lost muscle tone and required both physical and occupational therapies. In April 2008, he had a cardiac cath and attempted balloon angioplasty on his pulmonary arteries that did not work. Although his recovery was very long, he had a solid year or so of being a "normal" kid . Then in May of 2009, it was discovered that Conway was having rhythm disturbances, specifically atrial flutter. His pacemaker allowed it to go undetected for several weeks until he showed signs of heart failure and was admitted to the ICU for a week to be placed on IV heart meds and undergo cardioversion on 5/6/09. He went home and his heart function started recovering when he had another episode of flutter (6/16/09). This time, he was again hospitalized and put on IV milrinone, but he converted back to normal sinus rhythm by himself. At that time he was placed on the anti-arrhythmia drug, amiodarone. On 7/22/09 he had to be cardioverted again for yet another episode of flutter. The following week, he got worse instead of better. His cardiologist did a full work up and it was determined that his aortic, mitral and tricuspid valves were all leaking worse and were felt to be the cause of his heart failure. On 8/24/09 he had a cardiac cath and attempted ablation. The electrophysiologist was unable to induce a single arrhythmia. Then, just two days later, he went into atrial flutter on his own. He was placed back in the cath lab where he underwent mapping and a total of 17 burns were made to try to knock out his arrhythmias for good. The next day, 8/27/09, he had his second open heart surgery to repair his mitral valve called ring annuloplasty. He also had a partial Maze procedure done. His surgeries are performed at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). This time he was discharged just six days later! His Left Ventricular function improved drastically. In December 2010 we noticed he began getting more winded during physical activity. A January 2011 cath showed that he is outgrowing his RV-PA gortex conduit, but he was not symptomatic enough to warrant intervention. In April 2012 Conway’s fatigue increased and an echo at the end of May revealed that the ratio between the right and left sided pressures has gotten too high and it is time to replace the homograft that was placed when he was five months old. He had a cardiac cath on 5/25/12 which confirmed the echo findings. He had surgery on 8/8/12 to replace his pulmonary valve and RV-PA conduit, add an additional pacing wire to his left ventricle, and change his generator to a bi-ventricular model which is shown to preserve function and help the heart muscle pump more efficiently/effectively.