Good news!!!

So, it turns out that it was mostly due to the weather. His pressures through the conduit look great! She said they are very low. We did the EKG, and that came back fine. Then we did the Echo, and she said that looked about the same as last time. He has moderate leakage with his Mitral and Tricuspid valves, and minimal leakage with his Truncal valve (the main issue). She told us that the average size conduit for an adult is about 20-25mm. If I'm remembering correctly, and he has a 19mm (I'm going to check his medical records tonight) then that should last him a long time!!! She said if he does have a 19mm, then the mostly likely case is that it's going to calcify before he ever outgrows it. We went over to the hospital for the xray to check for calcification, and she saw no signs of it. :) :) :) That's my happy dance! :)

Many times, if there needs to be something done to expand the conduit, they will go in through a catheterization and balloon or stent it. She said that they won't even think about doing that until the gradient (pressures) across the conduit get around 40, for the bottom number. Right now he's measuring 25/16. The numbers are supposed to be as close as possible, from what she said. The numbers represent the pressure in one of the top chambers, compared the one below it. I'm guessing the chambers in question are the ones on the left, as that's where his conduit is and that's the side that the aorta and pulmonary arteries stem from. So, they want to do a catheterization before an open heart in most cases, and he's not even anywhere close to needed the cath! That's the best news we could have hoped for!

Thank you all for thinking and praying for us and Caden. We don't have to go back until October 26th!!! Good job Caden! :)