Another Echo & Rescheduled Catheterization

Clare had her echo and cardiology appointment on Friday. Sorry for not updating sooner, but it was a busy weekend! Shawn came home from Seattle on Saturday, so the whole family was excited to have Daddy back.

I am starting to really hate echos. They always spell bad news. At least right now they do. Clare's heart is worse than it was pre-cath. The narrowing in her pulmonary arteries has worsened, and the narrowing in her aorta has worsened even more. To the point where the cardiologist does not feel it is safe to wait 6 weeks for another cath (her second cath was scheduled for October 7). It is very important to get the pressures down on the right side of her heart, so Clare needs some more dilating on her pulmonary side ASAP.

To some degree, this was to be expected. It is the nature of Williams Syndrome that this narrowing continues to happen. It just seems to be happening very fast in Clare. There is only so much the doctors can do during the cath because of the dye contrast used on her little body, and Clare has to wait about 8 weeks between caths because of the dye contrast coming out of her system. But she needs these caths faster than they can do them. It seems like Clare may have a cath every 8 weeks, if her heart continues at this rate. And, once again, open heart surgery looms in the near future.

Needless to say, Shawn and I are upset by this news. We knew she was having more caths in the future, and her second cath is only going to be 3 weeks sooner than anticipated, but it's the continual shock that is more upsetting. Her first cath was scheduled under these same circumstances. With this second cath, we were more relaxed because Clare showed improvement post-cath so she was essentially healthier, we knew the cath was coming, it was scheduled 3 months in advance, and we had plenty of time to make arrangements for our stay and Jamie's care during those 3 days in Boston. Now it's a big BOOM again - we're getting to another critical point with Clare's heart which makes the cath that much scarier, the cath is sooner than expected, we are scrambling to make all new arrangements, and everyone is a little on edge (okay, some days, we're A LOT on edge).

We know God is watching over Clare and our family. And He does send us peace. Just the fact that it's barely nighttime and the other three members of my family are already sleeping is peaceful!