Care4Conway: Just Kidding

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Just Kidding

So, the nurse seemed surprised that they were planning on pulling tubes today so I asked that they double check his drainage numbers because I don't want to withhold food for him until 2pm for them to then decide they are going to leave them in another day. The cardiologist came in and said that he was close to borderline, but she would be conservative and leave them in. They don't like for his output to be more than his weight and his weight is 12.6kg and one tube had drainage of 22, 20, 16 and other numbers greater than his weight. The last thing we want is to pull the tubes today and then have to have more tubes placed tomorrow. So, today will be a play and wait day. Status quo, if you will. If the EP people are happy, he can come off the monitors and even go off the floor and maybe even outside. Too bad I didn't bring him any winter clothes! It's freezing up here. It even got into the 30's overnight! So, we will be patient. We are also increasing his enalpril up to 2ml and keeping him on synthroid (the thyroid med) until he gets home. They want Dr. Bromberg to take him off and then check his levels. Since he's been getting it here already, checking the levels now won't exactly give us a true number.

3 comments:

Terri Haseltine said...: Thanks for keeping me posted. You must save a million phone minutes with this system. I am always interested in Connie's progress, and progress it is! Enjoy your "play and wait day." I think my dad, Grandpa, is having alot of those days.....Terri; September 1, 2009 at 10:16 AM
Donna Beckemeier said...: Well, shuckin's!! I know you must have been just drooling at the thought of going home early. Oh, well. Like you said, better safe than sorry. I wouldn't want to have them put back either.
Thanks so much for keeping the information coming on such a regular basis.
Love and Hugs to all!; September 1, 2009 at 10:59 AM
Yvonne Mallon said...: Hopefully tomorrow!! We played that almost there but not quite game also for about 2 or 3 days!!
Welcome to Michigan....it has been pretty cool weather! I love it!!!; September 1, 2009 at 11:13 AM

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.