Jack's Follow-up

Jack had his follow-up doctor appointment today. His EKG is the same as before the surgery. They did an Echo as well, and the hole looks huge. There's a piece of the septum that was separating the 2 main holes that's now flapping around as the heart pumps. Both C and I thought it was a valve but the technician said it was the septum.

This time around, as we're becoming better informed, we asked more informative questions. I asked about the volume of shunting. Dr Wong explained that they use a ratio system to measure shunting. 1:1 is normal, meaning an equal amount of blood is being pumped through the lungs as it is the rest of the body. Jack's shunting ratio is 2:1, meaning that twice as much blood is going through his lungs as through his body. Dr Wong said that because Jack is symptomatic (he tires a lot quicker now than he used to) and the right side of his heart is still quite large, he'd like to have surgery done on Jack as soon as possible.

On Monday, he'll be at a medical conference, so he'll present Jack's case to any of the 3 heart surgeons that might be there (he said there's usually one who goes on vacation about this time), and see which guy will take the case. He'll give us a call Monday and let us know. Tomorrow, C's going to call and get a copy of the letter Dr Wong sends to Jack's pediatrician, so I'll know more specifics then.


Again, we wait. Hopefully we get this worked out soon.