The procedure involves threading a tube and a camera up a femoral artery in Blake's leg, into his heart. Once inserted they will put dye throughout his heart so they can get a really clear picture of his anatomy and how everything is functioning. This procedure allows his surgeon to create a blueprint for his open heart surgery (planned for this summer) and hopefully to reduce the time he is in surgery. (video on the cath: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzxSrLa1d0g&feature=youtube_gdata_player)
They will also be attempting to inflate a balloon in his aortic arch. This procedure is intended to help stretch out this area to increase his blood flow. The hope is if the balloon is successful, they will not have to touch his aortic arch in surgery which will again minimize the time he has to be on the heart-lung bypass machine.
The procedure is supposed to last approximately 3 hours with a recovery of 6 hours. This is an ideal, and we all know with special hearts we can't always count on the ideal.
Bryan is of course calm as always and I am a nervous basket case (again, as always). This is a minimally invasive procedure, but that doesn't make it any easier to hand over your seemingly healthy son to go under full anesthesia.
We will update the blog as the day goes on tomorrow. Please keep our boy in your prayers. Thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment