Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Update on OHS: Sedated Echo

For those who don't know, Lucas is scheduled for open heart surgery in two weeks to repair an atrial septum defect (ASD) -- a whole between the upper chambers of his heart. We've known about this for many months now and the surgery has been scheduled since December. However, during his last cardiologist's appointment in March, she performed an echocardiogram and confessed she was now hesitant to recommend surgery because his ASD is so tiny -- 2 to 3 mm. So she ordered a sedated echo to thoroughly check out the ASD and bring Lucas' case to Miami Children's Hospital conference of cardiologists and cardiac surgeons to determine how to best proceed.

That brings us to this morning...we got Lucas to Children's by 7 AM to prep for his sedated echo. It was fairly uneventful -- they gave him chloral hydrate to put him under (no fun holding him down while the nurse s-l-o-w-l-y administered the oral med), hooked him up to watch his vitals, and the tech began the 45-minute procedure. The room was dimly lit and nearly silent, except for the beep of Lucas' heart monitor. Watching him lay in a hospital room, fully under, hooked up to a few wires was a bit more than I could handle...I had to fight back tears several times as I struggled to push thoughts of Lucas on an operating table out of my mind. We've been told repeatedly that even IF he does need surgery, it is relatively routine and of the least complicated open heart surgeries...and yet, I'm paralyzed every time I hear myself say the words [open heart surgery] out loud so I use the acronym whenever possible, somehow in my crazy head, it doesn't sound as severe.

Anyway, Lucas was released late this morning and slept most of the way home. He was then up for about two hours before drifting off again just a few minutes ago. They warned us at the hospital to keep a close eye on him when he's up and around because he'll probably be somewhat loopy...and indeed he was...totally acting like a drunk 2-year-old -- if I wasn't busy trying to keep him from breaking open his lip, I'd be laughing.

Alas, the conference of cardiologists is at Children's tomorrow at 3 PM and Lucas' case will be reviewed. His cardiologist is due to call by Thursday with their consensus -- to surgery or not to surgery, that is the question.

Please keep Lucas in your thoughts and prayers while we wait. I think I need a cocktail!

1 comment:

Ann said...

Wishing you the best and hope you get good news tomorrow. I hope he doesn't need OHS (did the symbol for you) but, if he does, just know that it is survivable.