Second Opinion

The plans changed from the last time I posted.  We didn't end up going to Dallas for the cardiology consult, a very caring friend was able to get Hudson an appointment at Texas Children's with a wonderful cath doctor.  Thanks C!  Hudson saw Dr. J today, and Jake and I were very impressed with him.  He came into the appointment prepared, having read the records I had faxed over, and was very thorough and honest.

Dr. J first stated that closing Hudson's ASD in the cath lab is doable...very much so...so what the fuss was at CMHH about that is confusing to us.  However, he then went on to tell us that the ASD is not what he's really concerned with, it's Hudson's mitral valve prolapse and regurgitation.  He thinks, based on Hudson's cardiac history and the progression that he's showed already, that Hudson's valve will need to be repaired or replaced sometime in the not so distant future.  Dr. J said he felt like it wouldn't be completely honest if he didn't tell us that it might be in Hudson's best interests to have both the ASD and the mitral valve fixed at the same time.  He feels that waiting might cause his heart to get worse.  Doing both repairs at the same time means open heart surgery...if we do just the cath procedure on the ASD now, but then the valve needs repair later, it's still open heart surgery to fix that.  So Dr. J's point of view is, why take the chance that his heart will get a lot worse and then we might end up in a situation where he's a lot more sick.

Dr. J said that was his opinion, but he also said that Hudson's case is complicated and requires some thought, and so he wants to present his case at the weekly cardiology meeting.  All the cardiologists meet every Monday to discuss certain cases, and Dr. J wants to see what the surgeons think.  He will contact us with the decision...once again, more waiting!  I think we feel ok about this though, because it is obvious Dr. J has put a lot of thought into what is in Hudson's best interest.  He brought up points that CMHH hadn't, good ones, and we feel confident that whether the decision is open heart or cath, Hudson will be in great hands at TCH.  I feel that the decision is probably going to be OHS, and we will certainly have to have a discussion about it with his mito dr.  I can't think about OHS too much, it makes me entirely too nervous, so we'll cross that bridge if we come to it!