Cath Results

Sydney is out of cath and snuggling up with Christy on the bed. The cath went pretty well, with four main findings. (1) The pressures in Syd's lungs/Fontan were not anywhere near as high as we had feared. They were at 18, with 20 usually being the standard for "high." She did respond positively to 100% oxygen and then to nitric oxide, so she will soon be starting a Viagra regimen to help dilate the vessels in her lungs and reduce pressures. (2) There were some collateral vessels from her pulmonary artery that needed to be coiled off. They were probably contributing to her elevated pulmonary pressures. (3) She responded very positively to a temporary pacemaker, indicating that she will need to have a pacer placed permanently. And (4), her fenestration was not able to be closed. While it would have been good for her saturation levels, Syd's blood pressure dropped dangerously low when they temporarily closed the opening. Hopefully in five months or so they will be able to get it closed.

So what we know now is that she is NOT in Fontan failure and she does NOT have primary pulmonary hypertension, two nightmare scenarios that we are relieved to avoid! We don't yet know when they are going to do the pacemaker surgery. Dr. Lim, who did the cath, indicated that he'd like it to be done during this hospitalization, but we haven't yet spoken to Dr. McDaniel, who is the EP specialist. We'll update when we know more. They did indicate that Syd will be here through the weekend as her body gets used to the new medication. It will be interesting to see how it helps her sats. They told us that during the cath, with no oxygen, her saturations were in the low 50s. Yikes! Right now she's resisting putting the oxygen back on and she's in the upper 70s on blow by.

Thank you for the thoughts and prayers, they have been so important to the Davis family during this very stressful time!
Josie