It is called a Biventricular Repair.
Cat was born with Hypoplastic Right Heart Syndrome- a condition characterized by an underdeveloped right ventricle. So if you think of your heart having 4 chambers, she's essentially missing one. She also has 2 holes in her heart called an ASD and VSD. These holes have allowed her to live without a functioning right ventricle this long, but they also cause oxygen saturations to be low in her body because oxygenated blood mixes with non oxygenated blood from other chambers. Because her right Ventricle is so small, the Tricuspid Valve which is supposed to connect the Right Atrium to the Right Ventricle actually sits over both the right and left ventricle which causes some leaking into the left side that's not supposed to happen.
During the surgery, Dr. Emani will close both the ASD and VSD, and move the Tricuspid valve over where it should be. The thought is that as Cat has grown, so has her ventricle. Even though it's still smaller than it should be, it's big enough now to handle it's job. The surgeon will also be taking down the Pulmonary Artery Bands that were placed during Cat's first surgery when she was 4 weeks old. They have protected her lungs from too much blood flow while we were waiting for her repair. Now they will come off and stents will be placed in the Pulmonary arteries to reverse the narrowing caused by the bands. When everything goes as planned, her heart will be working like a typical heart
The surgery will take about 6 hours. Cataleya will be on the heart/lung bypass machine for 3 of those hours. She will be getting blood transfusions and Factor 7- which aides in clotting. Cat has a Factor 7 deficiency, so bleeding is a concern they'll be managing.
We know that God has brought Cataleya to this point, and He'll bring her through it. We are trusting Him to be her healer. We've claimed the blood of Jesus Christ over her life. Our prayers right now are twofold: For Dr. Emani. We pray he has a great night's sleep tonight and that his first surgery of the day tomorrow goes smooth. We pray that he has peace in all areas of his life so he can walk into surgery confident and prepared. We also have taken time to thank the Lord for Dr. Emani. He's arguably the best surgeon in the country doing this surgery. I emailed him out of the blue using an email address I got off the internet. He got back to me right away and has taken time and interest to give Cataleya the best treatment possible. And we pray for Cataleya. We praying that Holy Spirit rests heavy on her tomorrow taking away any fear and giving her an abundance of love, strength, and peace. If she can rest and let the doctors take care of her heart, her recovery will be so much easier.
We go to the hospital tomorrow at noon. Surgery will be around 2pm. I will post an update when I have one.
