Tuesday morning was Holden's heart cath. It was a long day, as you can imagine. I'll skip all the boring stuff and tell you about what they found and what they did.
They found that only a small portion of each of his pulmonary arteries were narrowed. You can think of it like a kink in a water hose. We were anticipating that the entire length of the artery would be narrowed. And if that were the case, the ballooning would not have been an option. Praise Jesus it was the better of the two! They took measurements of the pressures before and after the procedure. Normal pressure should be at 30% of our blood pressure. Holden's was 80% before the procedure. I'm so glad that I didn't know this before this point. I would have worried myself with crazy things like, " What if his vessels just rip because they can't stand the pressure?" Anyways, after the ballooning the pressure were reduced to 50%. Again- Thank you Jesus.
So our little boy has now reduced the pressure to 50%! It not normal but it just may be enough. We asked the cardiologist who was present during the procedure if this was an acceptable number. He said that you can live a long, happy life at 50%. We'd ideally like it to be closer to 30% but I'm so happy its reduced.
Again we are left with the "wait and see" prognosis. We will have another check up in 3-4 months to check how the heart is handling the workload and how the vessels look after the procedure. I learned that the arteries can narrow again, they can stay the same, or they can continue to grow with him.
I hinted above and my tendency to worry. And I do have a current worry and prayer request. Over the past few weeks Holden has had some feeding problems. The issues started out very mild and infrequently. And I'll be honest, Holden has never really been a good eater. We have progressed to him completely rejecting to eat some meals and when he would eat, it would often end after a few minutes and him screaming for the next ten minutes.
So while we were at Children's I asked to have a lactation consult, because I assumed there was something wrong with how we were nursing. I passed that test and she suggested a speech therapist watch Holden eat. The speech therapist gave Holden a bottle and was not pleased with his technique and how I described his normal feedings. She was worried he was aspirating (wrong tube). Thankfully, the swallow study showed he was in fact not doing this! So we have been left to assume that Holden is struggling with acid reflux. After they have introduced me to the idea, I'm starting to see more of the signs. He cries after eating, he spits up frequently into his mouth and then swallows it again, he does little baby coughs throughout the day, and he begins crying the moment I begin laying him back to attempt feeding. So we have started him on a reflux medication. It tastes awful and he usually cries when I give it to him. Please pray that this feeding issue corrects and to give me the strength and endurance to help him through it.
Bryan is probably right... he says that I'm always going to be obsessing over something. Well, I know he is right! I love him too much not to.
That's great to hear about his arteries. Both our kids had acid reflux problems as babies too. It caused them to spit up a lot and not gain weight well. Two weeks of liquid Zantac and they have both been fine since. Hopefully it's as easy a fix for Holden.
ReplyDeleteAndy Lowry