Pre-Fontan Preparation

Today Blake got an echocardiogram and we met with his surgeon, Dr. Fraser. His tests look good - heart function good, pulmonary artery good, flow good. They see a tiny bit of leaking in his tricuspid valve, but nothing that warrants any intervention.

His oxygen saturations today were about 80, so about 2% lower than two months ago, but still respectable. They hope after his Fontan that his sats will consistently be in the 90s.

One of the hardest things to cope with mentally is putting your child that is doing so well through such an intense procedure. Dr. Fraser agreed and knows how hard it is, he says at this point it is elective, but the likelihood that if we didn't do it now that we would be back 6 months from now needing to do it is high. We are going to proceed because we feel what better time to give him the greatest chance at a speedy recovery than when he is strong. Also, it is very important for us to keep life as normal as possible for Mason and we would be interrupting school for her if we waited until the Winter.

The operation itself will most likely be an extra-cardiac (outside of the heart) method where they will be using a piece of Gore Tex to connect the inferior vena cava to the pulmonary artery in order to increase blood flow to the lungs. Because the lungs are not accustomed to getting this much blood flow, recovery is largely about removing extra fluid from around the heart and lungs.

They also do not plan on putting a fenestration in his heart because his oxygen saturation will be higher without it and it will prevent a secondary procedure to close it.

They described recovery as a "crapshoot", we can expect to be in ICU for 1-2 days and then on the recovery floor anywhere from one week to three weeks depending on how quickly the fluid moves out of his chest. He will also be fluid restricted and may need to follow a fat-free diet. Post-op, full recovery takes 6 weeks for his chest incision to be healed, so it should be interesting trying to keep a three-year old on the down low that long.

All in all, Dr. Fraser says he looks as good as he possibly can for surgery and gives him a 98% chance of surviving surgery and recovering completely.

That's all for today. Time to go to Lupe Tortilla, eat delicious Mexican food, and let him be a kid for the evening.

Blake and Mom being silly at Lupe's!

Thanks for all of your prayers.