This morning during doctor rounds, they were concerned about her X-rays. Everything had looked great yesterday and today it looked like her left atrium was swollen. It could have been cause by our episisode yesterday in switching out the EMCO or our brief shut-down. There was a chance that it was from neither of those and something we would need to address.
They did an echo of the heart and it looked that there was a lot of pressure in the left side which was causing there to be extra fluid in the lungs. This in turn could cause the lungs to become sick. With our upcoming surgeries, we need the least amount of fluid and health lungs.
Our only option was another procedure done in the cath lab called a balloon atrial septostomy. They would go in through her femoral artery into her heart. There is a hole between the left and right atrium that is open in infants. After time, this hole closes, and Mallory's already had. They wanted to go in and reopen that hole to relieve the pressure and help her lungs.
Of course there are a lot of risks with this procedure especially in a patient on ECMO, but we really had no other options. The procedure could take up to 4 hours. I believethe hardest part was that they had to wheel Mallory down the hall with all of the machines, which was crazy to watch!
Once again we were in a waiting room...
After only 20 minutes, the nurse came back in and said they were successful and that it would only be a few more minutes.
One thing I have learned this past week is that although only 2 weeks old, Mallory has more strength than adults that I know. She is such an amazing baby!
Tonight is another quiet night. She's peaceful and resting. Quiet nights are great nights :)
Her fingers have made huge improvements. I see a big difference in her middle and pointer finger. Her ring finger is also looking better but still has more purple than the others.
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