Thaddeus Update 65

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The first snow fall!   It has been quite a while since my last Thaddeus Update. Thaddeus has been doing well. He is four now, in pre-school and learning lots. Since the last update, we have been in wait and see mode regarding Thaddeus' heart. The issue has been that his pulmonary artery has not been growing. We have been waiting to see if it would, but at his last appointment it showed no growth. While this is not a danger to him at the moment, it needs to be taken care of before it does cause problems. If the artery is not big enough to handle the flow of blood, his body will start to make new blood vessels from the heart to the lungs to handle the flow. This sounds like it would be a good thing, but it is not. So, on January 5th, we are taking him in to have a cauterization. They will insert a tube into his veins and run it to his heart. They will then give him a radioactive dye that will allow them to trace his blood flow. While they are doing this, they will decide if they want to perform an angioplasty or insert a stent. An angioplasty is where they inflate a balloon in the artery to stretch it out. When they deflate it, the hope is that the artery will stay stretched and will grow to stay that size. This does not involve leaving anything artificial in him, but it is also possible that the artery may simply go back to the size it was. The stent is putting in a tube inside of the artery to force it bigger and keep it that size. The advantage is that it stays there to hold the artery open. The down side is that it leaves something artificial in him, and there have been some problems reported with long term stent usage.(His aorta already has a stent in it.) They will decide which way to go, once they are inside and looking around. In addition, while they are in there, they may also sew up the fenestration that they placed in his heart. This was the overflow hole that they placed in his heart to stop any excess blood, that the heart couldn't pump, from pooling in his chest. In addition, they would like us to get him in for testing to see if he has any developmental issues. It is very common for children with these types of heart problems to have some type of learning issues. From everything we have seen, he is a very smart boy and quick to learn. (Wanting to do everything that Quintin does helps.)  However, we were told the development issues would be subtle, things most parents would not notice. From what I have read, language issues were most common and often were not noticed until the teen years. That’s it for now. More to come.