After the CT Scan

Originally Posted Oct 8, 2008 7:01pm

OK… Here we go…

Marki had her CT Cardiac Scan this morning. Outside of a bad stick on her IV – re-enforcing her fear of needles and causing her blood pressure to drop suddenly and nearly fainting -- all went well. Not sure if everyone knew but because of her allergy to Shrimp, they had to start her on prednisone and Benadryl the day before the procedure because of a concern with an allergic reaction to the contrast. – So far so good.

The Results… as expected, we are heading down the surgery path. The Right Coronary Artery is believed to be sitting directly between the left and right cusps and appears to be coming out of the wall (I am not a Dr. but as I understand coming out of the wall is not good). In addition it is higher than it should be, and is therefore being compressed between the Aorta and the Pulmonary Artery. It is also coming off at a sharp angle and therefore cutting\limiting the blood supply.

But… Surgery is not 100% (just 99%) until they meet with the group of cardiologist and the surgeon tomorrow night to review all of the images and confirm what they want to do and how they want to do it. She could not yet say exactly what they were expecting to do until they meet with the surgeon. They did confirm it will be open heart surgery but beyond that we will have to wait on the specifics. The Dr. is supposed to call me again tomorrow night to go over the basic procedures. The expectation is that we would then meet with the surgeon. Once I have more detailed information, I will pass it on. Marki’s only question was… “Do I have to get stuck with a needle again?” – Don’t worry about the fact that they are getting ready to do surgery on your heart J. I Love her!

Surgery… I do not yet know when it will be scheduled – she expected sometime in the next several weeks – as soon as they can get on the surgeon’s schedule, we requested to have it done ASAP. – Let’s get it over with and get her back up ASAP and doing her normal activities. The Dr. did say that they expected that assuming all goes well; she will be able to resume a normal athletic lifestyle with no limitations. – Yeah! Of course this will take several months. But no limitations are a great thing.

As this appears to be an on-going activity for some time going forward, I am going to open up a ‘Care-Page’ which is a website that will provide everyone a current status of Marki’s status. You will then be able to go take a look as you choose. I will also send emails when I update it so that you can be aware of changes as they occur. I have not yet done a full page setup – But the previous emails I have sent out are on the page, I will update with more Information and photos as soon as they area available.

The link for the Care Page is here…. http://www.carepages.com/carepages/158485/invitations/119444/3d8810cf508f5fcd1549bbdf8e04f4df6b0205c5

Thanks to everyone for their support! We really appreciate it. Please keep Marki in your prayers, she puts on the image that she is fine with everything – but as I previously mentioned – she doesn’t say a lot when worried. Though I have to say, that for those of you praying that she has peace – I believe she does. Oh yeah, pray for Mark, he said he is not doing well… and me… I’m doing ok – until I try to sleep.

Thanks Again,

Mary ..and Mark Lyon