Ok, I know everyone's been waiting to hear an update on Atticus from yesterday. Sorry it's taken so long, but I actually just got home from the hospital, and the computer lab there isn't open on the weekends. Atticus was having a rough time with his stats dropping and then coming back up. They did another echocardiogram on him yesterday and noticed he had developed what looked like blood clots in his shunt (which carries his blood to his lungs for oxygen). If this shunt becomes blocked, it is fatal for Atticus. They decided to take him to the Cath Lab to run a procedure on him to make sure it was indeed blood clots they were seeing and take corrective action from there.
They wheeled him back to the Cath Lab at about 3PM yesterday. They found that there was a problem with his blood flow due to a narrowing in the Aortic arch where the shunt came off of it, leading to the lungs. When he had his surgery, he had a 4mm shunt put in, and it had narrowed to 2mm. They tried to do a balloon angioplast to enlarge the shunt, but it was unsuccessful. So, they had to install a stint (a mesh reinforcement) into the shunt. During the installation, the stint actually slipped off the balloon and had to be pulled out. They then lost there arterial access to his heart. After gaining access again, they managed to successfully install the stint, and this corrected the problem he was having with blood flow. He lost a lot of blood during this procedure and had to get a blood transfusion. He has also had a constant problem with low platelet count. It seems no matter how many platelets they give him, his body uses them up at a rapid pace and he continues to have low counts. This was causing problems with his ability to clot, and so several of his wounds were staying "weepy" and they had to get these healing.
He also had a problem with his belly being bloated. This was being caused because of the restricted blood flow, causing the blood to wash back on itself and emptying into his abdomen. They reinstalled a chest drainage tube and while in the Cath Lab, already drained over 300cc of fluid from his abdomen. However, this helped solve that problem and his tummy is soft once again, and it continues to drain. The other problem they had was once the procedure was finished and they were trying to set IV lines for once he returned to the PCICU. They couldn't get an arterial line in. They finally decided to have Dr Hsai do what they call a "cut down". This means that he would have to actually cut the artery in his wrist and physically install the line this way. Dr Hsai was unsuccessful in getting the line in the right arm, and eventually had to try the left arm, which he finally managed to get the line in.
Atticus is finally stable. He's back in the PCICU and his numbers are stable. His face is swollen again, he's back on a lot of the meds that he had been weaned off of, the head monitors are back on, and he's on a higher oxygen rate on his ventilator. He has stitches in his right wrist where they first attemped the cut down. His legs are also VERY swollen and purple from the lack of oxygen they received during the cath procedure, as they had put the cath lines in through his groin. His legs are looking much better and returning to normal color from when I first got to see him at 3:30AM (or 2:30 AM with the time change) this morning. By the time I left, his left leg was pretty much back to normal color and they could actually feel a pulse in this leg, but his right leg still looked pretty rough. His blood gas numbers are still very off, as things such as his lactic acid are high due to the procedure, but they are starting to return to normal.
Please pray for Atticus. He's had a very rough 24 hrs. It seems like this episode has basically caused him to lose all the ground he gained in the last 2 weeks. It's almost like he's starting all over again. I am thankful that God has blessed him with such skilled doctors and that He has allowed me another day to spend with my son. I am grateful that they did not have to reopen his chest and were able to correct his heart with the Cath procedure. I'm also grateful for such wonderful love and support I have been receiving from all of you. Please pray for me and Robbie as well. As hard as it is for me to be here and watch Atticus go through all of this, I know that it is equally hard or harder for Robbie to stay home during all of this to be with our other two children who need their father, as they are already having to do without their mother. I will continue to update everyone on his recovery. Right now however, I'm gonna go crash and finally get some sleep. Please pray that God continue to watch over us, and that He will let Atticus heal quickly.
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