Status update.

{Our wise little Oakes owl this morning}

So, our Oakes has been in the Cath lab for about an hour and a half now and we are waiting for an update any minute now.

Before they took him we had some quality time together. We talked in depth about what was going to happen today, and I gave him about 12 suggestions on where to go today during the Cath. While we talked, I gave him a foot massage, hand massage and played with his hair. His paralytic was wearing off a bit and to my delight his numbers remained strong, he did not fight the vent and he was even responding to me. His eyes never opened but he would move his toes, or a finger, even shrug his shoulders. Right before he left he even twitched his nose and he and kind of, sort of puckered his lips a bit. It could have possibly been more of a twitch, but I am going with a pucker, as in, "I love you Mom, your fantastic, I'll see you in a bit, MMmm-wha!"

So this morning when I got here, our friend Dr. Joshua Murphy, the Cath doc came into the room to chat a bit. I got more info from him about what is going on today than anyone doctor this weekend. And a lot is planned. To start, on Saturday they did an ultrasound and detected a "significant blood clot" in Oakes' liver. He was started on Heparin to begin to try to break that down, but part of today's procedure would be to try to break that up even further without dislodging the clot.

Second, Dr. Murphy shared that from the echo done last week he is able to see that there is again congestion in Oakes' heart in the same place that they saw congestion after his first open heart surgery. To remind you, Oakes was born without a pulmonary artery or pulmonary valve. In his first surgery, he was given a donor valve and a pulmonary artery was created from existing tissue. Pretty quickly after that surgery we knew he would need another, because we could see that where his narrow native tissue met the larger donor tissue there was some congestion. So in his second surgery, he was given a new pulmonary valve (the first was aneurysmal and full of clot material) and his tissue was expanded to meet the donor tissue more precisely and to effectively correct the congestion issue. So, now, Dr. M can see that there is calcification and scar tissue at this sight where both surgeries have occurred. Dr. M's plan is to first gather data. Measure pressures all around the heart. He will enter Oakes through his groin again, but also is planning on gaining access through is jugular vein in Oakes' neck. Once data is gathered he will consult with Dr. H and Dr. Balser, the other Cath lab dude, and they will decide if they should do anything else today, meaning balloon the troubled areas open, or even place stints in them. He guessed that they would be ballooning in the least. He also shared that the procedure would take nearly 4 hours.

So, Greg and I are sitting tight. We did just get the first update that they have gained access and are gathering numbers. So far, so good.

More updates when we have them.

Love to all of our friends.

Becky and Greg.