Ryder had a busy morning - we found out late Friday that as a result of his afternoon ECHO, he would need another heart cath before surgery - he has had a difference in his upper and lower extremity blood pressures but the ECHO too looked like there was a gradient difference and it was thought this represented a coarctation - narrowing- of the aorta in the area of some scarring from his first surgery. So, he rested this weekend and went back to the cath lab this morning where he had this narrowing dilated with a balloon. It went well, the only disappointing news was that his right pulmonary artery barely has any blood flow to it so this will require some patching, etc. which will make his surgery tomorrow a little more complicated/risky. Ryder's surgeon is confident, though that his pulmonary pressures look great in preparation to sew his superior vena cava (big vein that brings blood from top half of body back to heart) directly to the lung via the pulmonary vessels...this is the "Glenn" surgery (picture below). It will take away half of the work his little heart has to do so if all goes well will make him much more stable overall and able to better tolerate feeds, exercise, etc. though he will still do it all with low oxygen levels.
So, tomorrow is a very big day for our little guy. I will echo (pun intended) everything I said before his first big heart surgery - in short, despite the ups and downs this little warrior has taken us on for the last, yes, SIX months he is nothing short of amazing. Absolutely amazing. In the short time he has been in our lives he has taught us countless lessons and he is the most perfect gift we could ever have received. Please pray for Ryder tomorrow morning on his 6th month birthday as we have to let go of his hand once again and have faith that the Healer of hearts will be guiding the hands of those mending this little heart...
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