50% of kids who have the Norwood procedure with the BT shunt (which Rowan did) will need some sort of repair of the shunt between surgeries. This is where we are at.
Rowan is having more trouble breathing, swelling up a lot, and his oxygen saturation levels are continuing to drop. This is normally what it looks like when the shunt has problems.
They have him scheduled for cath tomorrow morning. During the cath, they will likely put a stent in the BT shunt. This should instantly fix the problems and he should return to “normal” quickly. We should see his saturation back up and he should de-puff and be ready to go home in a few days.
That said, they did warn us that if he turns super bad quickly today, they may take him down and do an emergency cath.
My husband was able to switch his schedule for next month so that he is not working nights and if something turned horrible quickly, he can leave. He is getting a plane ticket to come back to Tulsa on Wednesday so he can go back to work Thursday. In light of the cath and Matt’s schedule change, I will be staying in St. Louis. All of this is of course, subject to change in the next 48 hours.
I’m pretty nervous about him going to cath lab. They have to give him paralytics and intubate him again for it. He needs it or he’ll die. Hard to argue with that. I will, however, be trying really hard not to cry when they take him away for it tomorrow.
As always, you're always in my thoughts. Don't worry about trying not to cry. You have every right to do so, but I know you'll still be as strong as you can be. That's just you. And Rowan will come out of this stronger than ever. That's just him.
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