Cardiology for Beginners

At our last cardiology follow up, Dr. Pinto had advised us that she had some small concerns about part of Clara's heart repair. To repair Truncus Arteriosus, the surgeon takes the common trunk that should have been an aorta (send the oxygenated blood to the body) and pulmonary artery (send the blood to the lungs to get oxygen) and turns it in to the aorta. He (or she) then takes the periphery pulmonary arteries and places a conduit between them and the heart, thus building a new main pulmonary artery. Ta da!

The new artery (conduit)
is where the narrowing is

However, where the conduit creates a T with the periphery artery, there was some (expected) narrowing showing in her echo taken shortly after surgery. Today, they did another echo on her and found that the narrowing is getting worse and it is impacting the effort made by her right ventricle. Long story short, we'll be making a visit to the PCMC cath lab soon. The news is that it is an easy, generally same day procedure. The surgeon will go in through a vein in her thigh and use a balloon to stretch the area that is narrowing. If needed, they may have to place a stent to keep it open. If all goes well, we're home for dinner.
The good news from the appointment-Clara is getting a g tube! After we re-fix her heart, Dr. Pinto has referred us to GI to get the ball rolling. So while that is probably a few months away, I can see a light at the end of the tegaderm tunnel. 2 tape changes per week x maybe 10 weeks means less than 2 dozen NG tube nervous breakdowns for Mom. I know there will be new and different challenges with this new tube, but we have heard so many good things in comparison to the NG. We also got cleared to take Clara up in the mountains this weekend for a family reunion, no oxygen required! We'll take progress where ever we can!

Showing off her muffin top
after her echo