In the Cath. Lab now...

We made it here this morning and so far, Ethan has not come down with whatever Lauren has right now. He was in really good spirits and I just got the call that the catheterization is underway. It should take a couple hours still but so far the nurse said that Ethan is doing great.

So, what they are doing is closing some of the "collaterals" that formed to move blood to the lungs since his pulmonary artery is too small at the moment to do its job (the surgeon will make it bigger tomorrow). These collaterals are extras that formed during development that the normal heart does not have. The doctors always say its "Nature's way" of taking care of a malformed heart but we know, of course, its God's way of helping little Ethan along until he could have surgery. Up until now, that is really how Ethan has been living. He has depended on these collaterals to move the blood to the lungs but he is getting bigger and they are just too tiny to sustain him for too much longer. If you have seen Ethan recently, you can tell that he is just a bit more blue in color at times than he used to be.

They are closing most of the collaterals that the heart surgeon cannot reach during the open heart procedure. They probably will leave one of the bigger ones open that the surgeon can reach so that he can get enough oxygenated blood to the lungs until tomorrow morning when they will fix his pulmonary artery and valve. The risk is that even closing just one of these collaterals will cause him to have a "Tet spell" and he will have to have emergency surgery today.

We thank you for your prayers! And we'll keep you updated. Now I have to go and call home to make sure the girls aren't driving my dad crazy! : )

-h