Seems so strange to be happy about that sentence. Usually when someone says that to you, you respond with, "Congrats on your Engagement, Congrats on your New House or Job!" Not very often do you respond with, "Congrats, they want to operate on your son!"
Dr. Lewin called today. He heard back from his colleagues at Mayo and the cardiologist and surgeon he conferred with both agree that Alistair is a strong candidate for surgery. They are very confidant that the CONE procedure would be a successful fix for him. They are also confident that they can close his Atrial Septal Defect without complication. Dr. Lewin asked me if we were still wanting to do this. We have been talking about this so much in the past few months that the idea of it not happening would have been more disappointing. I think we are all mentally prepared and are definitely ready to get this behind us! It is a scary idea and we are in no way skipping happily down this path. But, yes, we are still wanting to do this!
They did require one more exam prior to moving forward with scheduling. They want to do an Electrophysiology Study, which is a catheterization procedure and will be done in the cath lab at Seattle Children's.
The reason they want this done is to test Alistair's heart for irregular rhythms so they can be prepared for them during surgery. The procedure involves inserting a thin tube called a catheter into a blood vessel through his leg. Through this catheter they will feed electrodes into his heart. There they will record his heart rhythms and also be used to stimulate the heart with electrical signals to replicate activity that would increase or decrease your heart rate to check for irregularities in his rhythm at different rates.
This procedure will require Alistair to be sedated and anesthetized and will take about an hour to perform. It will not require him to stay overnight, but will require a few days of rest. Probably will be done in the next few weeks.
No news on the results from his Halter Monitor yet.
We are having a phone conversation with Dr. Lewin tomorrow night after Alistair goes to bed. So far we have learned about the mechanics of the surgery, the place where the surgery will occur and the typical recovery time for patients. But we wanted to have a frank, nuts and bolts conversation without Alistair present to really know what to expect...especially after surgery and what exactly Alistair will be experiencing and what we need to prepare ourselves to see.
Starting to feel a little more real now...I would like to stop living in a holding pattern and I think that will be resolved in the next week or so when Mayo calls to schedule. From there we can start to plan and prepare.
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