Decisions...Decisions..........

Well today Colin had another 5 hour Cath procedure in which they took pressure measurements and did complete a few stents to the upper left lung. The good news is the pressure has dropped in half since before the first surgery in the Right Ventricle. The bad news is the blood clot returned to the shunt that was put into the lower left lung. This is fairly rare when shunts are involved because they supply the blood to the region at a higher pressure. Well Colin continues to be a one man band and he clotted. Again this is due to the extremely small vessels that had minimal blood flow for the past year. We now have a decision to make on whether to put him back into surgery on Thursday. Dr. Bacha said he thought we should for one final last ditch effort, in which he would completely "rebuild" the shunt and homograph. If it clots again than we lost the lower left lung forever. However, the chance of it working is anywhere from 10-20%. They would cath during and a day after to try and prevent it from clotting yet again. The surgery would only involve going in the back incision and considering he still has his Left Chest Tube in, Breathing Tube, IV's, Central Line and Arterial Lines in, it would be minimal to Colin but set his recovery back a few days. Colin would not need to be put back on bypass either during the surgery. This is a decision that Melanie and I have to ultimately make and we are split on the decision.