We were at CHEO on Tuesday to see Christopher's cardiologist. His blood pressures are, as expected, still quite different between his two arms, but there was no change in the readings from his previous appointment. This is good news, because it suggests that the narrowed spot on his aorta isn't getting worse.
His cardiac catheterization is booked for November 16th. We have to go in the day before so he can have bloodwork done, see the anesthesiologist, and of course be checked by his cardiologist. Then we go in the following morning for the procedure. He (and I) will stay overnight that night and as long as all goes well, we should be home the next day. It seems that the biggest risk is of a clot forming in his femoral artery, which is the one in his groin where they will feed the catheter in. That could occlude blood flow to his leg, so they'll be watching his legs very carefully after the procedure. If a clot does form, they will treat it with blood thinners.
The important things that we are watching for between now and the 16th are diaper rash and infections. If he has a diaper rash on the day of the procedure, it will be postponed, because the catheter goes into his artery right in the diaper area. Any skin infection could be introduced into the bloodstream. Thankfully, he's not a particularly rashy kid, but I am going to be hypervigilant about his diapers for the next couple of weeks!
Also, we're really trying to keep him from picking up a cold in the next couple of weeks. Any infection could make the anesthetic unsafe and therefore would also result in postponement of the procedure. It's a tricky thing at this time of year to avoid colds, so we've been spending a lot of time at home, unfortunately. But it's definitely worth it to make sure that the procedure can go ahead as planned.
We also had an appointment with Christopher's new physiotherapist on Monday of this week. She was very pleased with his development and says that she can't see any difference between his two sides in terms of motor development right now! Hooray! She used a very detailed rating scale to look at his development and he scored at the 50th percentile for his age. That means he is perfectly average compared to other babies his age who have no medical problems. Pretty great news. He also had his eyes checked last week and the optometrist thinks that his visual fields are okay. We're thrilled about all of this.
Here's a fun photo from Hallowe'en, of our little family garden: a pumpkin and a sunflower.
And a happy boy:
Family garden...I love it! They are just adorable
Posted by: Dee Light | 12/10/2011 at 09:18 PM