Surgery update

The surgery got underway around 11. We have gotten 23 updates so far.

The echo results were not great. Her heart is still very enlarged and has fluid around it. Her PA’s look good and her pressures look good also. Her aorta is forming collaterals which is the body forming new pathways to and from the heart. These are expected but not good. Gabi may have to head into the cath lab for these collaterals. The main concern is that the regurgitation within her heart has worsened. This is basically backwash from her lower heart to the upper chamber. The fontan procedure could help this issue but she is not due for the fontan for another 2 years. So – we are waiting to hear from Dr. Rao and get the straight scoop. We asked about a possible transplant and the fellow that we spoke with said it could be on the table for discussion.

The GI doc has a spoken to us and he got as normal results as he could possibly could have. We will get results of the biopsies next week sometime.

The ENT surgeon just came in and Gabi has anatomically perfect airways. She said normally she just prints the images off to show the parents, but this time she burned them to CD to use as a teaching exhibit. Gabi does have a partially paralyzed left vocal chord. Good news is that it was paralyzed in the closed position, which is why she can still make a racket. The bad news is that because of that she cannot swallow properly, and her body has learned that to clear the space at the back of her throat she pukes rather than swallows. The doctor is sending her vocal chord movement numbers off to a doc at Harvard who specializes in this sort of thing. He has seen the most of it in the country and he should be able to tell us how much recovery can be expected.

SUMMARY: Time should help with the feeding, but only time will tell us that. Her heart is doing well, though not quite as well as last time.