The latest on Andrew...
This morning (Wednesday) Andrew went in for a cardio cath, basically an exploratory procedure to find out IF and How he can have the 3 surgery treatment for his heart problem. If you do a search on 'Single Ventricle Heart' you will find the basic situation with Andrew. He was born with only 1 atrium chamber and 1 ventricle chamber, whereas you should have 2 each. This, combined with his arteries and veins being either absent or running to the wrong place, caused major issues with his ability to produce oxygen-saturated blood. The Dr. said this is a 'hard heart disease to work on, not that it is 'rare', but it is very complex.'
His only option is to have these series of surgeries, this week, 6-12 mo, @4yrs. old respectively. the Dr. said that this first surgery, to insert a shunt into the PDA (a duct for blood travel), is the most risky. The % increase drastically for the better with each procedure. This first surgery will probably happen Friday and will leave us at the hospital (Arnold Palmer) for the next month.
We are very happy with the medical team here, they are very intelligent, and yet make themselves very understandable. they seem concerned to be sure we know what is going on. To list everybody that has supported us through visitations, phone calls, and most of all prayer, would be impossible. We will try to keep everyone up to date, hoping this blog to be a primary source of information. ANYONE is welcome to visit any time, just give us a heads-up prior to coming so we can work it into our schedule. Again, thanks so much for the support, please keep up the prayers, we still have a long road ahead of us, but with God's guidance, we will make it. We hope you all like the photos (and video, if it works) and we will update as we can
