COOPER IS DOING GOOD....

Well Coop is out of the cath and is doing great. We are in a room and he is currently sleeping, it has been a long morning for him. He has an IV in but it is just standard protocol and won't be removed until we leaved. His SAT level is good and respiratory rate is normal. Thank goodness! These have always been the problems in the past. They have us set up to start discharge at 3:30pm. Yep that's right, we are going home today and we are thrilled! He will probably be sore and a little lethargic for a couple days but everything is good.

What we learned with the cath.....
So as I've said this was an exploratory surgery so they could see exactly what is going on in his little heart and set a plan for his future surgery. Our cardiologist, Dr. Kaine, did the cath and we met with him as soon as they completed one on one. He does a great job of explaining things and this is, in his op onion what we are looking at. He has to consult with Cooper's surgeon, Dr. O'Brien, before it is a done deal but this is what the scenario is now.

Cooper's residual VSD is still there and yet smaller is still significant. This is simply a large hole in his heart between the right and left ventricle. Normally with this size of VSD Coop would not be doing so well but in his anatomy he also has obstruction in the pulmonary arteries that carry blood to the lungs. These two issues together are allowing Cooper to actually be doing very well. However, his right ventricle is being forced to work very hard and is pumping large volumes of blood. In turn, his right ventricle is enlarged. In the short term this is ok and is even making it very conditioned but in the long term this will cause his right ventricle to weaken and therefore has to be corrected. The two problems are corrected in 2 very different ways and they cannot correct one without correcting the other. The VSD is corrected in an operating room with open heart surgery. The narrowing of the pulmonary arteries is best corrected in a cardiac catheter which is done in a special cardiac catheter lab. The operating room and the cath lab are very different rooms and therefore doing the 2 procedures simultaneously the way Coop's need done are difficult to do. However, wouldn't you know it, but CMH has been preparing for the past 5 years for situations like this and in late August are to have completed 2 new rooms that basically have combined the operating room needs and the cardiac catheter lab. Dr. Kaine's opinion is that they will wait until these rooms are complete and then will schedule Coop's surgery therefore looking at fall time. The other repair that is still pending is the valve that needs placed in Coop's Pulmonary Artery. The great news is that the artery is probably big enough to insert an adult valve. This is amazing to us and could extend Coop's next surgery after this one to 10 years!!!!! This sounds much better than the 3 to 5 years were had been told before. The bad news is the valves do wear out so this will continue to be something Coop will have replaced for the rest of his life. It is also unclear and up to our surgeon as to whether they will insert the valve in the upcoming surgery or once again wait. There are people the function without this valve at all but Dr. Kaine did not think this would be advisable to Cooper's situation. All in all the news is good and nothing we didn't expect. I think each time we review his case it becomes more clear to Terry and I. We actually understood the film and pictures this time which was nice.

So the plan is to be home late this afternoon and we will go from there. Dr. Kaine, Dr. O'Brien and their colleagues will review his case next Friday and then Dr. Kaine will call and let us know for sure what they will do.

They just came in to run his vitals and he has spike a little fever but nothing to be alarmed about. It is probably just the anesthetics. They will continue to watch him.