Henry's "Heart Boost"!

Henry is ready for a surgical boost for his heart! The surgeons discussed Henry's case Friday morning and the operation they recommended was a Central Shunt. The shunt (a gortex tube) will be placed between Henry's ascending aorta and his pulmonary arteries. The hope is that this shunt will provide the help Henry's heart needs to oxygenate his blood better and aid to growth in his pulmonary arteries (that have not been used- or provided blood flow- since he was born). If the shunt is a success we will see: 1) Henry will have better O2 SATS... his were in the mid-70 at best and low 60s at worst in the last month. 2) His pulmonary arteries will grow to accommodate his continued growth and demand from his heart. 3) Henry will have increased energy and grow. If all goes well we won't need to do any surgical repair/addition for a year, at which time they will do another cardiac cath to check things out closer. If he has more road bumps the surgeons can correct problems with the shunt during an earlier additional cath procedure (as opposed to another surgery). This surgery is what they call "closed heart" surgery as they will not need to open his heart to complete it. It will still be complex, but this is less risky than "open heart" (no bypass). I'm working on finding a picture that can explain what Henry's heart looks like now with a picture of what the surgery will add/correct... but stay tuned for that. And maybe a guest blog from Jules to explain!

Want some more information and history about these procedures?? Here's an article about the first pediatric heart surgeries like the one Henry needs (also a really neat story about the first African American surgeon... no quiz later, just interesting!): http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/905950-overview Also included in the article is information about the Central shunt in much more detail than I can explain. It is quite a ways down the article, so keep scrolling if you want to go directly to it to "Types of shunts" heading.

Later down the road... if all goes well we hope Henry will be able to have a "complete repair" surgery. Our cardiologist briefly discussed this over the phone last week mentioning this would entail giving Henry a conduit (more permanent addition in place of the shunt) and closing Henry's VSD. But, this is like a basketball team planning for the National Championship game in October... lots of progress to be done before then!

SO, again, Henry will still have some hurdles and surgery is never something to look lightly on... BUT we are so pleased with the option of this treatment!! His surgery will be at Children's Mercy Hospital, where Henry was tranferred soon after he was born. We will receive a call from the Surgery Dept within the next couple of days to schedule and we'll know more specifics then about when/where he'll be at within CMH, what to expect, and what the usual course of treatment/stay is. Lots of details we will keep you informed about. My monthly blogs will (happily) be more frequent with all the new news, so bear with me:)

More soon!!