Mikaela Heart Procedure Update

Mikaela’s heart procedure yesterday at Children’s Mercy Hospital went very well. We had a little stress at first when there was about a 2-hour delay getting started, due to a schedule change that was not communicated well. But once the ball got rolling, all went smoothly. The hole in Mikaela’s aorta was a little bit too large to use the coil procedure that was originally planned, but the cardiac surgeon was able to substitute a new “plug” that is inserted much the same way as the coil. The plug’s only been available for about the last 11 months, but the success rate for it has been excellent.

They don’t use general anasthetic for the procedure, but Mikaela was heavily sedated. One of the sedatives they use is Versed, and a positive side-effect Versed is that Mikaela will not even remember the traumatic parts of the procedure. The procedure did not involve any surgical incision – the nurse described it as like a very long IV line. The entire procedure was completed using a catheter line. We’ll have a follow-up appointment with her cardiologist in a couple of months, but the angiogram taken during the procedure showed that the plug was firmly placed and stopped the leakage from the hole in the artery.

Mikalea did stay overnight at the hospital, which is SOP when the plug is used. Miriam slept there with her. She’ll be having a chest x-ray this morning just to confirm that everything is working like it’s supposed to. We expect to be discharged before lunch. Once we get home, Mikaela’s only restriction is that she can’t submerge the catheter insertion point for a couple of days (so no baths until Monday). Otherwise she is cleared to resume all normal activities immediately.

We’re all pretty tired and emotionally exhausted, but we really couldn’t have asked for a better resolution.