Elijah had his cath on Tuesday. It didn't go quite as we had hoped. His cardiologist had been concerned about his arch, however, they found that the arch had a bit of narrowing but not enough to be worried about at this time. However, they did find that his left pulmonary artery was almost completely collapsed. The doctor said that this could be due to scar tissue or the patch that was done during his last surgery may have collapsed. She attempted to balloon the artery during the cath but it didn't quite work. She had to place a stent in the artery. The stent opened the artery nicely and reestablished the blood flow. The stent will have to be inflated as he grows. They also found that his body created extra blood vessels call collaterals in order to compensate for the lack of blood flow from the LPA. They tried to plug the collaterals but they were too small for the cath the doctor was using. The doctor is hoping that the vessels will regress now that they are no longer needed.
We were expecting that Elijah would need to spend the night at CHLA, but he has had to spend several nights. He was diagnosed with pulmonary edema caused by the extra blood flowing through the artery. The fluid in his lungs was making it very difficult for our little guy to breath. He was breathing, panting really, like he had just finished a race. But he never recovered. He just kept panting. Watching him breath like that was exhausting. I can't imagine how tired he must be. Because of his breathing, he was having a difficult time eating. He had to take countless breaks while eating and would only eat an ounce or two.
The cardiologist today said that his lungs looked much better on this morning's xray. Dion is there with Elijah tonight and he said that Elijah had a good bottle and only needed three breaks. I am hoping that he continues to improve and gets to come home tomorrow. The cardiologist said that while they may resolve the extreme breathing issues he has had over the last several days, he isn't sure if they will have fixed the breathing issues Elijah was having before we came in. Only time will tell. If he continues to struggle at home, we will have to come back and they will try to figure out why he is working so hard to breath. The doctor who did the cath is hoping that as the collaterals fade, his breathing will improve. It seems that each of the doctors has a different viewpoint and opinion as to why Elijah is struggling like he is. I wish they would all agree.
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