Several weeks ago when we were told that Rachel would be a candidate for a heart transplant, we were told by the surgeon that everything needed to be "boring and frustrating." Well, unfortunately, it hasn't been boring, especially today.
Rachel has been having "atrial-flutter," meaning that the top chamber of her heart, the atria, had been in a "fluttering" state for several hours in a row. If the flutter remains, there is a chance that it could lead to a blood-clot formimg. So, the doctors wanted to do a procedure where they would insert a long tube down her throat with a camera on the end of it to that would go into her heart. This would allow them to see whether or not a clot had already begun to form. If a clot had formed, they would start her on a Heparin drip (blood thinner) to help desolve the clot. If there was no clot, they would shock the heart by pacemaker to get her out of the atria flutter, if they could not get her out of the atria flutter by pacing, they would have to use the shock paddles instead. Howwver, they can not shock the heart, with or without the pacemaker or shock paddles, without the procdure of going down her throat first. If they shocked her heart and there was a clot there, it could send the clot off thereby causing major problems.
Unfortnately, they had to sedate her before they could put the tube down her throat. However, she had built up such a tolerance to the sedation, that she didn't fall asleep so they could not do the procedure. So now, the plan is to take her down to the OR sometime tomorrow and put her under anesthia in order to do the procedure. The drawback with that is that it causes the heart to supress and given her poor heart function, that can be tricky. For now, they started her on a Heparin-drip and she is relaxing.
This is so dang aggravating as it seems the longer she is here, the more problems arise.
2 comments:
From our experience with the Shands anesthesiologists, they are more than careful with these problematic kids. Cat was very high risk due to her PH and later, when it also affected her heart, she was even riskier and they did great with her. We will be praying that all goes well and for you all who will be waiting.
I just found your blog and plan to pray like crazy for you and your fighter "Rachel". What an amazing girl you have...she is so strong and so beautiful! Many prayers for no more problems to arise and only the perfect heart to find its way to your family.
Post a Comment