We haven't used this news outlet since we had a last-minute, untimely cancellation of the Fontan last summer. If you've forgotten (or never knew), we were within 5 minutes of out the door for Sam's Fontan pre-op last July when TCH called us and told us to stay home: our surgeon had been injured in a bicycle accident, and we had to wait.
Since then, Sam has had a relatively "normal" year, only spending two days in hospital--one for a dental procedure, one for a sedated echo and MRI. Here's a picture of Sam with Henry in a rare moment of mutual sweetness (don't mind the lack of pants--that's baseline for Sam):
It was this second procedure, the MRI, that has landed us in the "Cath Lab" three days prior to the rescheduled Fontan. The fear of waiting a full year to complete the big surgery was that Sam might develop "collaterals," which he has,indeed, developed and had confirmed by MRI. If you checked out the previous weblink, Sam specifically has "Systemic Arterial Collaterals" which would be likely to complicate the outcome of his Fontan.
So...we will "coil" at least some of the collaterals, which means they will no longer shunt blood flow in unwanted directions. Our hope is that by doing so Sam will have fewer complications after the Fontan. In the meantime, he's still in the Cath Lab and should be out in a little while.
As a number of people have been asking, we will, again, be using this site to communicate Sam's progress over the coming months. In addition, if you "Like" Sam's Heart Journey on facebook: you can get shorter, more frequent updates than this site will offer. We'll keep you updated at least one more time before game day on Thursday. Be sure, those of you who got them, to wear your Sam's Heart T-shirts on Thursday!
And, as always, thank you for all of your thoughts and support!
The Leclaires
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