Hi everyone
It is nearly midnight and I just arrived back from the hospital a few minutes ago. I was there at 7 am expecting that Andrea would go down for her cath soon but it took till around 2:30 till she went down. they told us they expected it to take 1 to 1.5 hours in the lab but it was 3 hours. It is the first time for her to have it done without general anesthetic, they used fentenel to make her sleep while they inserted the cath in her wrist and jugular in the neck. They needed her to be somewhat awake for some of the tests. This investigation confirmed what the doctors and us had been suspicious of for awhile, and that is that her heart is very sick. There are not many options left, a possible transplant, or first a ventricular assist device as a bridge to transplant in the future. If a VAD is put in it is at least as big a surgery as a transplant. Google "heart mate 2" for more info. The problem she has is called diastolic dysfunction. They are not sure what comes first, the heart muscle getting stiff, or the very smallest cappillary veins in the heart muscle closing up depriving the tissue of sufficient flow. The top number of a blood pressure test indicates how well the heart squeezes, the bottom number indicates how well the heart muscle relaxes to allow the chambers to refill for the next beat. In hers the heart does not relax enough for the chambers to refill properly, therefore insufficient flow is circulated to the rest of the body. There is a lot more detail I could put in, but this will have to do. Andrea was in a lot of pain and discomfort tonight , throwing up etc. Her arm was very sore from the clamp used to put pressure on her wrist after the catheter sheath was removed. Hopefully she will be able to sleep good. Please remember us in your prayers.
Thanks, Maynard
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