(photos: Vivian enroute from cath lab to pediatric recovery, Mommy leaning over crib with Vivian in pediatric inpatient room, Mommy and Vivian cuddling together about 11pm, sitting up and happy girl next morning, and finally visitors or intrudors in my bed...okay, brothers)
**P.S. in the photo with Mommy, that's not a cast, just a lot of protection so I don't yank my IV out!
July 13th Angiogram at University of Iowa Hospital Iowa City, IA
We arrived at 10am for Vivian's 12:30pm catheter procedure. The idea being to put a catheter in her leg, snake it up to her heart and see exactly how the blood is getting from her heart to her lungs. They took her measurements first, and she is now weighing in at 19.2 lbs.! So, she is up 15oz since we got back into the states.
We were told that once in a while the situation comes up where an intervention can be performed in the cath lab. and two hours into the procedure we got a text on our pager to report back for a meeting. In their findings they found the native pulmonary arteries, albeit very underdeveloped, in Vivian. That was great news. Then they could put a stent in the pulmonary artery before it branches to the lungs that would allow more blood flow. With more blood flow the pulmonary arteries should naturally grow over time.
The procedure was a great success, and the medical staff in the OR were very excited to see the increased blood flow to the lungs immediately when they injected test dye. They saw good coloring changes to Vivian right there in the room. Since we've had Vivian, her oxygen stats have been around 65 and now after the procedure, she is up to 85!!! Wow!!
Needless to say, we are thrilled because this may eliminate one heart surgery/recovery. Vivian still has a hole in her heart which needs repaired at some point. Our course now is to give her body time to heal and hopefully grow those pulmonary arteries. She will have a cardiologist appt in the next week or two for a new baseline. Then around the end of August she will have another angiogram at the U of I hospital. As for heart surgery(actually surgeries) the timing for that is less known. It depends on the pulmonary arteries growing which could be months or a year.
