April3- cardiac cath and surgery

 Luke screaming and desaturating after the cardiac cath.

 Kissing Luke good-bye just before surgery.

Just Before the Cardiac Cath.

We checked Luke into day surgery at 6:00 this morning for a cardiac cathetization. The anesthesiologist intebated him and they did the procedure. They found a narrowing of the aorta and so they ballooned it open again. The procedure took about 3 hours. When he got to the ICUs floor he was crying, gagging, and his dry throat was so hoarse. Mark and I tried to comfort him but he just wanted to eat and they didn't want him to. So his oxygen saturations were very low. They were stable at 40 percent but once fell down to 25 percent. I was scared. A normal person has oxygensaturations close to 100 percent. So with it being so low I was thinking possible brain damage.

There were lots of physicians in and out of the room for about an hour. They gave a bolus of fluids and two doses of versed to calm him down. The sats did improve into the 60s and 70s when he was drugged up. But immediately fell as soon as they began to wear off. The surgeon dr. Burch was called. He looked at Luke, the results of his cardiac cath, and decided to do surgery. Within a half an hour Luke was whisked away.

Now we are in the waiting room. It's been about two hours and we haven't heard any news yet. I'll update as it comes. The picture is Luke after the cath but before surgery.