Cardiology Check Up

As you may have noticed, Santiago is still on oxygen. Most heart babies do not come home on oxygen. It's more common for them to come home with a feeding tube. We are very lucky that our little love is a good eater and has not had any gastrointestinal issues. The oxygen tanks are a nuisance and I hate that his cheeks are raw from having tape on them constantly, but I know this is temporary and we can get through it.

We have had many discussions with Santi's cardiologist about the oxygen and why he's still dependent on it. She thinks that there could be some narrowing in an artery, however, until today his echocardiograms didn't show any. At our appointment today she compared his echo with the one they did 4 weeks ago. She was able to see that there is a very slight narrowing in the aorta where it connects to his shunt. This is most likely scar tissue.

Next week, on 6/21, Santi will have his first heart catheterization. During the heart cath, they will enter through the artery in his thigh and and follow it all the way into his heart with a scope. They will use contrasting dyes to really check out his heart from the inside out. If they see any narrowing or scar tissue they will use a balloon, like angioplasty, to expand the area. This procedure is "minor" but it's still scary for us and there are risks. If all goes well he will only spend one night at CHLA.

If the cath shows that his heart is in great shape, he will have the Glenn (the second of the three planned surgeries) 1-2 months from now. If things don't look great, they'll do the Glenn a lot sooner.

So, if his oxygen dependency is because of some narrowing in an artery and they are able to open up the narrowing during the cath then he MIGHT be off the O2 a few days after the procedure. Fingers crossed!