Tuesday 14 April 2009

Hi all, just to let you all know that today we found out that Alannah will need surgery. This is something that we expected to be honest, especially considering that Alannah has still a need for the drug to keep a duct open that adds to the blood flowing to her lungs.

Last week, as you may know, Alannah had a procedure to open a valve to allow blood flow to her lungs. This has worked but not enough blood is flowing through this valve - her heart needs more time to develop. This surgery will be to create a duct from the Aorta to the Pulmonary Artery which will increase blood flow from the heart to the lungs. It's open heart surgery this time - which of course is worrying - but it is a common procedure in the hospital and the surgeon is dedicated to performing this type of surgery.

We mentioned the possibility of a further catheter procedure (stent) in an earlier posting. This is no longer an option as there is a little flap in Alannah's duct that opens and closes. The doctors are afraid that if they tried to put a stent into this duct to widen it that it may rip and it is just too risky to do that procedure. That is why we are now looking at the open heart surgery - it's called a BT shunt repair. They still think that a 4 chamber fully functioning heart is a distinct possibility for Alannah in the long run. The plan would be that after a year, they can carry out a non-invasive catheter procedure to close the shunt and let the heart do all the work itself.

There is a slight infection in the lines she has for drips etc. but the doctors are happy that the antibiotics given so far are working. Tomorrow, we will find out if the infections will hold up the operation date and if not, we should know tomorrow when the operation is scheduled.

We will update you as soon as we can, but in the mean time, many, many thanks for all your well wishes, prayers and comments.


Tom, Ev, Mikey and Alannah