10.26.10 - Cardiology Update...

Liam had his cardiology check up this afternoon.  It has been 3 months since our last visit (post op).  In the past, we have never gone longer than a month, so it was strange going back after being away so long...and even more strange for the news we received.

Liam has always had perfect (for his condition) test results, normal - no signs of any issues or problems, given the ones he already deals with....Today was a bit different.  First was a weight check 19 lbs 14.5 oz, height measurement of 30 inches and an EKG - all looked good.  Next came the Echo.  Liam did great, he was very calm and still as he usually is, every now and then grasping for the "wand".  The tech (who never says a word) made a comment to me "When was your son's condition diagnosed?....Where was he born?"  Almost small talk....weird.  My mind immediately started thinking, why is he asking?  Does he see something?  Of course, I tried to talk myself into believing it was nothing, because in my day now, I always think I am being so paranoid.

Oh and then there was the wait....waiting and waiting.  It's always like that, I came to expect it.  But it seemed a little longer this time.  Finally 2 hours into the appointment, our Cardiologist comes in to talk to us as he usually does.  First, he hits the questions about the hospital stay last week....but he quickly gets off that topic and starts in on this:  "There was a change on the ultrasound today...."  Here we go.

For some strange reason, before the cardiologist started his "review", I got the idea to record our conversation (IPhone apps have been so useful lately!)...weird, I know, but Dustin wasn't able to be there and my recall memory is not the greatest.  I was expecting the usual, everything looks great, what's your feeding game plan, etc. and I wanted Dustin to be able to hear Dr. Verma's advice.  Little did I know, I would be using it to share Dr. Verma's not so great news with him later at home.

Basically, Liam has a significant narrowing of his pulmonary valve at the place where it meets the conduit.  This is causing his blood to flow very fast through the pulmonary valve and conduit and thus, the right side of his heart is having to work extra hard to get the blood to flow through it (His pressure 3 months ago was a 6, today it was 80 - not really sure what that means exactly, but that's a pretty big change fairly quickly).  This was very unexpected for us, as we will now have to schedule a heart cath procedure to find out what is causing the narrowing. Unfortunately, our Dr.s suspicion is that the valve needs replacement...which means another open heart surgery.  But, the cath procedure may be able to delay a surgery by ballooning the area to buy us more time...it all depends on what they find. 

We will be scheduling the cath procedure in the next couple weeks.  Pleas pray for us...this was totally out of left field for us, especially being so close to his last surgery and following on the heels of a recent hospital stay... we are weary, to say the least.  But, we know God is good and He is ALWAYS purposeful in everything He does, so we are trusting in Him and His timing.