Friday morning we had our first real setback with Lyra. She had a cardiac catheterization at 8am that morning, which, was supposed to be a routine procedure in preparation for her second stage of surgery. However, during the cath, they discovered some narrowing of her aortic arch, and unfortunately the area where her shunt connects to the pulmonary arteries, which had been balooned in a previous cath, had also narrowed. The result of this was that Lyra's body had started to grow a number of collateral arteries that lead to the lungs. Normally these are very small, but with the reduced blood flow caused by the aortic and pulmonary arterial narrowing, her body started to grow the collateral arteries to supplement the blood flow. The result of that was that her pulmonary arteries haven't been growing.
So, tomorrow (7/26), she will undergo her second open-heart surgery that will remove the current shunt, repair some of the narrowing of her pulmonary arteries and install a new shunt in a different location. There is also the possibility that they will have to do some repair work to the aorta as well.
Currently Lyra is doing okay and is in the Duke PICU. She's awake and alert, not sedated and while she's not too comfortable or happy, we're at least able to hold her and comfort her. Maren is still nursing her when she's hungry and we've been with her the whole time, except late at night and even then Maren has gone in to nurse her when she wakes up.
I'll post again when I have more information.
Posted by Tim at July 25, 2004 02:47 PM