Thursday Night in the CICC

This morning during rounds, the Chair of Children's Cardiology spoke with me about Ethan's condition. He had a lot of good things to say. In fact, Ethan's whole team is quite pleased with many aspects of his recovery. He continues to eat like a champ. He has come a long way in that area. His heart rhythm and blood pressure continue to be in the near optimum range. Ethan has been spared many of the complications that often can lead to a very dangerous journey for HLHS babies.

One area DRs are concerned about is his oxygen saturation (we sometimes call this "sats" or "pulse ox"). Ideally, his sats should be 75-85%. Ethan's sats are in that range but only due to the assistance gained by being on oxygen. Each time we try to wean Ethan of the oxygen, his sats drop. Sometimes they go back up again. They go back up - they come down. And all the time to "safe" levels - but not levels we would want Ethan to be in all the time. When he sleeps deeply, his sats have been dipping below 70%. Again, because we are monitoring this closely, and increasing oxygen improves his sats quickly, Ethan is not in danger during these changes. That being said, Ethan should be off of oxygen by now. DRs don't know why his sats are fluctuating so much. To find out, Ethan has been having regular echocardiograms (bi-weekly at least). They've been inconclusive in regards to saturation but have reaffirmed that his heart is doing as it should be physiologically - which is great.

As an effort to learn more about his blood flow, internal pressures of heart chambers, and arteries and veins in the heart and lungs, a cardiopulmonary catheterization has been scheduled for Friday morning at 8am. There is little risk associated with the procedure. This procedure is done under local anesthesia and is performed in a special lab - not an OR. The procedure, in short, consists of threading a small tube with a pressure sensor on the end of it through his veins, heart, and arteries. Hopefully the DRs will be able to further understand the particulars of Ethan's heart, lungs, and the veins and arteries related to the two. Hopefully some light will be shed on why Ethan's sats bounce so regularly. His sats issue is the last thing that needs to be addressed and rectified before Ethan can go home.

Please pray for Ethan's safety, steady hands and clarity for all those involved in the catheterization, and that Ethan's sats would improve with no further non-medicinal intervention.