Heart Cath Postponed

Jesse has had a cold for over a week with various symptoms. Friday I took him to the doctor in Sterling, but by then he had no fever and Dr. Clark thought he had a virus. Then Sunday Jesse had a runny nose. But the doctors at Children's said they would still do the heart cath if he didn't have a fever, and the drainage was clear. So Chad & I came to Denver late yesterday. Jesse's oxygen was a lot lower last night and most of the night I had him at 1/2 liter oxygen. We went to his first appointment this morning with an ENT doctor to go over the sleep study results. But I don't feel like the doctor really went over the results at all, and didn't really explain anything to us. He did answer the couple questions I asked, then he did another scope even though I said he just had one done in June. It showed his adenoids were slightly enlarged, but he didn't feel that they would contribute to the apnea, and didn't see any need to remove them at this time. So, I guess the diagnosis is that Jesse primarily has central apnea, which may go away as he grows. He said he would want to do a repeat sleep study, but didn't say when. I then asked for a written copy of the report and read that after leaving. I have a couple questions I am going to ask Jesse's cardiologist.

After lunch we went in for his appointment with a pulmonologist. Here they used a pulse-ox and found his oxygen was in the mid 80's on his normal 1/4 liter oxygen. We ended up having to go up to 1 liter to get him up to 94-95. We did a chest x-ray which showed he does not have pneumonia. So they think he has a virus. Since his oxygen was so low they will not do the heart cath, for a couple reasons. One is that his pulmonary pressure is probably quite high right now, so the heart cath would not be a good indication of his normal pressure. Also, the pulmonologist is going to do a bronchoscopy to look at his airway and down into his lungs. After this procedure she said healthy child will need increased oxygen (around an extra liter for at least 4 hours) and sometimes need to stay the in the hospital for a couple days. So she thinks because of Jesse's problems he has a greater chance of needing hospitalization after the procedure, so we want to do it when he is healthy, not when he already needs extra oxygen.

So, now we wait again - for at least 3 weeks after Jesse is well. We are staying in Denver overnight to make sure his oxygen levels are stable, and not getting worse, and then we will go back home tomorrow.

Thank you everyone for your prayers.

Kristan