Kenten 7-26-10

We received the letter today explaining Kenten's procedure. I thought I would share it. Several of you have been curious what it is that is going to be done.

During the Procedure:
The anesthesiologist will give medications through a mask or IV line, and your child will drift off to sleep. After your child is asleep, three to five long catheters are passed through the skin into blood vessels, usually in both groins and the right side of the neck, and gently guided into the heart. The heart's electrical system is then "mapped" by placing the catheters in specific locations in the heart and by pacing the heart. The "mapping" is the electrophysiology study. When an extra pathway or irritable site is located, low frequency radio waves are used to destroy the pathway or irritable site. This part of the procedure is the Radiofrequency Ablation. The ablation is done to cure your child of his or hear fast heart rate.

After the Procedure:
Your child will be on bed rest for five hours to allow the catheter insertion sites to hseal and heal. It will be important that your child not bear down, cough excessively, vomit, or push himself up in bed or stand. (This will be the tough part. If you know Kenten, you understand.) These actions can cause internal pressure that could cause the catheter sites to bleed. Your child will have a large, pressure bandage on each groin when he wakes up from the procedure. These will stay in place for five hours. They will be removed before your child is discharged. Your child will be able to read, watch TV or videos or play Nintendo while on bed rest. (I'm thinking new DS games or movies will be an excellent Christmas gift.) Most patients will be discharged to go home later the same day or in the early evening after the procedure. Should the procedure run late, or should there be any delay in routine recovery, he may need to stay overnight for observation.

Risks:
The risks of this procedure are very low. The risks of Cardiac Catheterization include: loss of circulation to a leg, blood clots (which could result in a stroke), bleeding, infection, perforation through a blood vessel or heart wall. The risks of an Electrophysiology Study include the risk of an abnormal rhythm occurring or an adverse reaction to antiarryhythmic medications. The risk of Radiofrequency Ablation includes possible damage to the normal conduction system. (Lots of things to pray about here.)

If you haven't been kept up on what all is going on, you can look back through my notes. Everything pertaining to these events are labeled with Kenten's name and a date. You'll want to go back to November 2009.

Kenten 7-8-10

I FINALLY got to talk to the scheduling lady from Children's Mercy. I scheduled Kenten's procedure for Tuesday, December 28. We will leave Wichita Monday morning. He'll have preadmission testing at the Cardiac Clinic on Monday afternoon. He is having a Radio Frequency Ablation and an Electrophysiology Study.

They will map the electrical workings of his heart and hopefully correct what was causing the SVT episode that happened November 2009. Since then, he has not had another episode that we are aware of. The thought is to fix the cause of it now. If we wait until we see more episodes, it becomes a necessity. Right now the procedure is an elective procedure. Once it is done, we're not supposed to have to worry about it happening again. I'm sure we'll always worry though.

There is a chance that what caused the SVT will not be able to be fixed until he is older. We won't know for sure until the EP study is done.

We will be able to stay at the Ronald McDonald house while we are in KC. We've been talking about using this as an opportunity to have a small family vacation. I found out our insurance will cover 90% of the procedure, leaving us to pay the remaining 10%. The insurance will pay 100% once we've paid $2000. I am especially relieved by this. I was having nightmares that this would cost us $10,000 or even more.

We'll keep you posted as things get closer.