Resting.....

Posted Dec 30, 2008 11:08pm

Hey everyone,
Sorry it took so long to give an update on Jenna. Everything went well today. He finished her cath around 11:15am, which means it took about 3 1/2 hours to complete. She had no complications which is wonderful. He said that he went back in on the right side to her lungs to make sure that the stent he put in back in September was doing well and also to see if he could open the area more. Apparently when he placed it, the artery was still shaped like an hour glass after placement and he was able to open it more today, but not much. So improvement as Dr. Beekman likes to say. Anyway, he was able to get in on the left side, by using the cutting balloon and the catheter went very smooth through her artery to let him look at that side. He said that when he got in there, she had quite a lot of teeny tiny vessels, but he was able to balloon open 4-6 arteries to help improve the blood flow to the area. He said that she has a lot in there and there is lots more to do. He told us that he is "improving her blood flow and opening the arteries more" but her numbers (pressure readings and oxygen levels in the heart) are not changing. So, he said that we need to be prepared that there are some children who they do this on for quite some time and are even those who they never are able to get to the point for closure of the hole in the heart. She could possibly be one of these. I asked him, what do we do at that point? He responds with we continue to watch her and treat her, and she lives the same type of life that she is living now, no change in her symptoms, still being tired, pale skin color,slow weight gain, and poor appetite. He says that she looks beautiful on the outside, and is living a full life. So...we will return in about 4-6 months, tentively we are scheduled for the first week of May. At that point, he will go back in again and work on the left side, since it is the side in most need. He wants to wait this length of time, because he said that he wants to give Jenna a break, she has been through a lot lately for a little girl. We said that this is fine, since everything that is performed is just to help improve her.
She went through recovery well, tolerating her apple juice and is now moved to her Pediasure and milk. She wanted to get down a couple times, but the anesthesiologist gave her two doses of Versed, which knocked her out for the entire four hours which she had to lay flat. Thank god! After that she was up for a little while, but still not herself, but she got to enjoy her Noggin shows for a while. Within a couple of hours she was back asleep again for another 2 hours, long enough for us to get some dinner. She decided while we were gone to let everyone know that she existed by screaming and banging on her bed and jump up and down until we got back. We played for awhile and now she is back down, hopefully for the night.
Tomorrow we are set to have a lung scan to see if the blood flow to her left side improves, which Dr.Beekman is hopeful for since her levels from today did not change prior to and after. So we will see. After that is completed, we should be able to discharged in time to get home before the new year. We will keep everyone posted on how the day goes!
As always, thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers for her and us. We appreciate everyone. Sleep tight and talk soon.

Jenny, Justin, and Jenna