Change of Plans

Well, we finally made it to Boston after an eventful day of traveling. Our flight out of Baton Rouge was cancelled due to maintenance issues, so we took a taxi to New Orleans to catch the next flight to Atlanta. Emma Kate got a little motion sick on the flight. She did much better on the flight from Atlanta to Boston. It actually worked out pretty good, because we got bumped to first class. We just think that Emma Kate prefers to fly this way! She slept pretty much the whole way.

Today was a very long day for all of us. We checked into the hospital at 7:30 for Emma Kate's pre-op. The morning was very busy. We met with EK's nurse practitioner, two surgeons, did chest x-rays, blood work, and checked all of her vitals. We had a break for lunch, and then EK was scheduled for her sedated ECHO. Before the ECHO we met with the anesthesiologist, and we also met Dr. Breitbart (EK's cardiologist). Emma Kate was put to sleep and we went down for the ECHO. It lasted about an hour and a half, and then we went back to the room to meet with Dr. Breitbart again. At first, he thought that everything looked like he expected it to. Then he listened to her heart and heard something that made him think that we needed more pictures from the ECHO. We went back to the room and started looking at her heart once more. Several other doctors came in and were speaking doctor language to each other, so Trey and I became concerned that they may have found something new. Dr. Breitbart explained to us that he suspected Emma Kate may have some narrowing of the left pulmonary artery. He decided that there needed to be more test run to check for this and that it would not be safe to continue with the scheduled surgery. This, of course, was really hard to hear. We were really hoping that we could be in and out, and it doesn't look like that is the case. Dr. Breitbart sent us for a lung scan (this would give us more information about the narrowing of the left pulmonary artery.)

The lung scan revealed that the left pulmonary artery has some narrowing or stenosis. The left lung has less blood flow; the right lung has more. A heart catheterization will be performed Friday morning around 7:30am . A balloon dilation in one or more vessels (or a stent) may be necessary. If it is, it'll be done at that time. After the procedure, a repeat lung scan will be performed to make sure the dilation was effective. The plan is for her to spend Friday night and be discharged on Saturday.

The earliest possible time that EK can now have surgery is next Monday, but this has not been scheduled yet. So, it looks like we'll have several days to explore Boston. My two sweet sisters flew in today, so hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to all do something fun. Thank you so much for checking in on us. Please continue to pray for peace and patience for us. Please also pray for EK's safety during the heart catherterization Friday, and for her upcoming surgery. We will keep you posted...