It is almost time. Surgery #6

I can't believe the appointment is so close. It has been a difficult week for me, emotionally. My worst fear is that this heart procedure will not work and I will be told my 7 year old boy needs open heart surgery. This weighs heavily on my mind and I will not know the answer until Tuesday morning. I hope for ONCE this boy's luck goes his way and this actually works!! I know there are still risks. I finally read about it. I couldn't make myself research it until this week. Normally that is all I do is research research research but to keep my sanity I did not do that. I read two articles and that is all. I just have to remember my son comes though everything with flying colors and no complications and I must believe in my own heart that this time will be the same.

I haven't really told Brendan yet. I don't feel he needs the stress. I can see him listening when I talk about it to other adults but I don't really think he knows what is going on. He hasn't asked any questions yet so I will leave it be. I will let him enjoy this weekend of camping and explain Monday while we are completing 6 hours of testing. He is unaware of all of this. He has no idea mommy took off the whole week to be with him and we will being staying overnight in the hosspital IF it works!! So whoever reads my blog think of my son on Tuesday morning and if you pray...pray with all you have that this procedure works for him and they are able to close his holes and this ordeal can be behind all of us! If you want to read about this procedure here it is:
Procedures using catheters

A procedure that uses a catheter to close the ASD with a special closure device (septal occluder) is a recent but increasingly used option. Catheters are thin, flexible tubes used in cardiac catheterization.

The advantages of such procedures are that they:
Don't require the child's chest to be opened
Usually require no more than an overnight stay in hospital
Let the child recover quickly
Closure with a catheter can't be done for every type of ASD. A catheter can be used with secundum defects (that is, those located near the middle of the septum). It can't be used with defects so large that there is not enough surrounding tissue to anchor the device.

The catheter procedure is done under general anesthesia, so your child will sleep through the procedure and not feel any discomfort. During the procedure, the doctor:
Inserts a catheter into a blood vessel in the groin
Threads the catheter to the heart
Measures pressure and oxygen levels for all four heart chambers
Injects dye and takes pictures (angiogram) of the heart
Uses a balloon catheter (under ultrasound guidance) to estimate the size of the ASD
Threads a special fabric-covered wire frame to the heart
Positions half of the device on the left side of the atrial septum
Positions the other half of the device on the right side of the atrial septum
Wedges ASD between the two parts of the device
Within 6 to 8 weeks, normal tissue grows in and over the device. There is no need to replace the closure device as the child grows.

The outlook for children having this procedure is excellent. Closures are successful in more than 9 out of 10 patients, with no significant leakage. Because the device is relatively new, what is not known is whether there are any long-term problems with the device compared to surgery.

(while googling a link a youtube video popped up for an ASD closure. I think I am all set watching that one!!! Sometimes there is a bit too much information out there for my eyes to see.)