After meeting briefly with the doctors this morning, the consensus is that a heart-transplant would be a better option for Rachel than trying to replace the aortic valve. If they replaced the aortic valve, there is no guarantee that it would help the left ventricle to relax and the aortic valve would have to be replaced every two or three years anyway meaning more open heart surgeries. This is not to mention that the pulmonary artery that he replaced five years ago with the gortex tube would also have to be replaced at some point as well as the pulmonary valve that he replaced during this last surgery. The heart can only withstand so many surgeries and the doctors (and us) agreed that it is not fair to put her through multiple heart surgeries when she could benefit from a new heart.
For right now, they are going to increase her heart-function medication to help her heart and try and remove the breathing tube either later today or tomorrow to see how she does on her own.
We are suppose to meet with the surgeon and two cardiologists in charge of the transplant team either later today or tomorrow to get more information and what will transpire over the course of the next few days/weeks/months.
We were told by one of the transplant cardiologist that they have to go through a series of tests in order to "get the ball rolling," which we hope to find out more about when we meet with all of the doctors.
2 comments:
Sending lots of Love, hugs and prayers from the grandparents FB page and please give Rachel's grandma a big hug for me and tell her it's from her friend Beverly Lipe
We are all flooding the gates of Heaven with prayers for Rachel & her family. Tell Rachels grandma(Linda)we are sending tons of love & prayers & we miss her. From: Darcy Shaler on Granparents FB page
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