Caden was discharged this evening. The surgery was cancelled for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that all surgeries at MUSC are cancelled for Friday 9/5/2008 due to potential tropical storm conditions along the SC coast.
The second reason Caden will not have this ENT and general peds surgery is that the cardiologist has recommended that these surgical procedures not be done. They have conversed with the ENT surgeon and general surgeon to determine that the procedures are not critical enough to outweigh the risks of having Caden under anesthesia. The cardiologist sees Caden’s current heart condition as being so fragile that they do not want Caden to undergo anesthesia unless absolutely necessary. They say that if Caden were to go under anesthesia that they would want the cardiology team on standby with an ECMO (heart-lung bypass) machine in the operating room. They basically say that Caden’s heart (the left ventricle in particular) is running at capacity and would not be able to produce more blood flow if something were to go wrong during one of these ENT or general surgery procedures. A problem during surgery could require Caden to go onto ECMO until the left heart output repair could be completed. Did I mention that Caden’s heart case is very complex and his cardio-thorasic surgeon is out of the country during the first half of September? Enough said.
I do want to clarify that the primary care team discharged Caden today because of the great improvement he has made since starting the Rocephin shots. Caden was sent home with a 21 day round of antibiotics to help protect him from infections between now and the scheduled heart surgery.
There are more details that I could share, but we both might fall asleep. I am wiped out and headed to my comfortable bed for only the second night in more than ten days.
Heart surgery is stll on for October 15th if we are not able to get worked in on September 22nd. Stay tuned as we get closer to the 22nd.
Thank you for your continued prayers. God is good!!