Heart Cath Results and Possible Hospital Admission

Graysen's heart cath went well today. All of his pressures looked good, especially the pulmonary artery pressure. (That pressure must be OK in order to be cleared for surgery.) The surgery request was sent to the surgeon today, and we should know the exact date within a few weeks. Tentatively, they are planning on the surgery being between October and December.

Graysen did well during the cath. There was only one complication during the procedure. His heart went into an abnormal rhythm (super ventricular tachycardia). They think that it may have been due to the catheter hitting the wall of the heart, but it did not resolve itself when the catheter was removed. They had to give him medication to get it back into a normal rhythm. Since it did not resolve on its own, the doctors are investigating if this rhythm occurs with Graysen. He was given a take-home heart monitor. He will wear it for 24 hours, and then we will mail it back to MUSC. MUSC will read the results, and determine if he needs to be seen by their specialist for arrhythmia. It can be corrected by medication if necessary.

Graysen's 6 hour post-cath time was 5:30 PM, which was the time that we were slated to go home. Unfortunately, we are still here. He has not woken up form sedation, and is not showing any signs of doing so. He woke up for a few minutes at 3 PM in a foggy haze, and ate a bottle. He immediately went back to sleep and has not woken up since. His oxygen levels are around 75, which is 10 units lower than baseline. (They want him to be at baseline before he is released.) He also will not urinate. His body became very swollen like a marshmallow and they had to use a cath to remove the urine from his body. So, he is not allowed to go home until he urinates by himself, and until his oxygen stats are above 80. They think that the low oxygen and fluid retention are due to the sedation. It appears that he is very sensitive to the sedative and is not coming out of it as quickly as expected. So, they are thinking about keeping us overnight. They have moved us to 7C, which is the pediatric cardiology inpatient unit. We have a room here, and are technically under observation. They are going to make the decision at 8 PM on if they are going to officially admit him as an inpatient. All of the paperwork is filled out, and they are ready to do so. If we are admitted tonight, we should still be able to go home to Spartanburg tomorrow. It just means that we are going to get home later in the day than expected.