Surgery Date

Surgery Date

Written Mar 15, 2012 10:43am by Amber Gannon Medina

I wasn't sure whether to update you all on Mira's tentativeSurgery Date, but what can it hurt? The date might get moved or changed, but right now her surgery date is set for March 27th, 2012. Exactly 5 months and 6 days from the day of her first surgery.

Mira's case is once again a little tricky-she wouldn't have it any other way. Babies who are good candidates for the Glenn Surgery need to have low pulmonary pressures for the surgery to be a success. The findings from Mira's Cardiac Cath (which was a few weeks ago) showed she had higher pressures than the doctors like to see. Mira needs to have low pressures because simply put her new circulatory system will not be able to rely on the heart to push blood to her lungs, it will "provide venous flow" to the lungs. I will not pretend I know this enough to explain this well, but in essence Mira's circulatory system will push her blood to her lungs, where in normal systems the heart does this work. So you can see why if there is high pressure in her system, the flow would be disrupted. Does that make any sense?

A follow up Echo-cardiogram showed that her tricuspid valve regurgitation (in essence, the leakiness from one of her valves) had improved and her heart function was good. The doctors feel that this is a good enough indication that her pressures have lowered and she will be a good candidate.

We are happy that they are able to go ahead with the surgery! We are being cautioned that in rare cases (which she has been many times, little stinker) the Glenn does not work and may even have to be "taken down" during the actual surgery. In that case, we would have to look at other options like a heart transplant.

We are hoping everyone can once again put their energies and prayers towards a successful surgery-that she comes out safe and sound and that her heart accepts its new way of circulating! We also want to let people know that Mira doesn't like to do things the "normal" way and that she is in a small percentage of patients where doctors just aren't completely sure she will respond the typical way to the "rewiring" of her heart. 

Thank you again for all your love and prayers-Mira is where she is now because of them (and maybe a little bit because she is a spitfire too). We will keep you updated of any change in her surgery date or new findings.