Baby's first heart cath

Ryder just got back from the cath lab and seems things went pretty well considering he is a complicated little guy.  His lower extremity veins are occluded from his prior clots etc. and they had some trouble getting into the vein in the R neck so went in via L.  Despite some trickiness getting the catheter where it needed to go there were able to get most of the measurements they wanted.  There were no arternial stenoses stented - they were thinking about trying to balloon the R pulmonary artery (which is narrow near his BT shunt) but they couldn't get the catheter quite there so this was deferred.  It may have provided some temporary help with his oxygenation but in the long term probably not a huge issue as this is in an area he will theoretically have surgery later.  He still has a fair amout of tricuspid regurgitation but pump function overall is good.  His pulmonary vein pressures look low enough to go for the next surgery but there are a few other calculations that still have to be made on the measurements taken today.  We won't know anything more about any future potential surgeries until after the next heart conference (Tuesday).  So if you were wondering if he is going to have this Glenn, when it could be, etc. we won't know until next week...

We are very thankful most off all that so far no complications - he didn't have any arrhythmias or require additional vasopressors during the procedure!  For now, Ryder is still intubated, waiting for a paralytic and some sedation to wear off...he did just take a couple of his own breaths though so we are on the right track!  If you are in a praying mood - pray for him to get off this ventilator again soon before it becomes another permanent appendage!!  All in all a good [Friday the 13th] so far for this little warrior!!


Dinosaurs make you big and strong, in case you didn't know that.