Heart Catheter

We are at Primary's right now for another heart catheter. Burke did great during the 4 hour long procedure. The doctor was able to successfully balloon open the left branches of his pulmonary artery. They haven't grown since the last heart surgery and the last heart catheter so this ballooning is supposed to help it grow. They are very pleased with how all the ballooning went. Now if his artery could grow, Burke could possibly get off the oxygen over the next little while. Though, because of his complex anatomy, his oxygen levels will not be perfect because the wrong blood is going into the wrong artery. Once they do the final repair of his heart (which is a major, major complex surgery) then his oxygen levels could be near normal.

The right branches of his pulmonary artery has grown since the last ballooning which is a great sign. They had to put a metal stint in on the right branch of the artery to help reinforce it. That will most likely stay in for the rest of his life, but could be taken out if needs be.

We are pleased with the results from what they saw in Burke's heart and are hopeful that what Dr. Gray did today will help Burke be able to sustain life right now better than he currently is. We are anxious to have the artery grow and see the change for the better in Burke's life.

We are staying in the hospital over night because they want to monitor him more closely, and hopefully be discharged in the morning. ENT will come by in the morning before we leave and put a scope down Burke's nose to check if his vocal chord has improved. We are hopeful that is has because his voice is a ton better than it was when we first got home from his December surgery.

We will keep you posted. Burke is doing well and sleeping right now which is a great thing, considering he has to lay flat in the crib and has to keep his leg still to keep it from bleeding too much. Yeah, we will have a fun night tonight trying to successfully accomplish that feat!