Call From Cardiology

So my husband came home from work and the first thing he said was "oh good at least your sitting down".  Those are NOT the first words you want to hear when your dear hubby gets home.  He went on to explain that the cardiologist called. 

On Monday July 16, 2012, Eli's cardiologist will take him before the surgery team to discuss his subclavian steal syndrome.  He apparently has been going back and forth with some other doctors and gathering data to present to the team.  There are several options and things to consider.  Of course they always go from the most invasive to the least invasive.  The most invasive is of course is full on heart surgery.  This would be very risky since what they would do is bypass surgery.  They would take an artery from somewhere else and put it in the spot where Eli's artery doesn't exsist.  This is where Eli's original heart problem is though so if his aorta recoarcs then the vessel could tear and kill him almost instantly.  This is EXTREMELY risky and most likely NOT the way they will proceed.  Another option is to tie off the left vertebral artery (the artery that goes to Eli's brain that now that is stealing the oxygenated blood from his brain).  This apparently is normally done during the original surgery, but for some reason they skipped this step (this has been said to us more than once now).  The problem with this is that Eli has to have enough "collateral" vessels in order to supply his arm with oxygen.  Otherwise he would end up loosing his arm.  And the last option is to go in and put basically the opposite of a stent.  Instead of opening it up it would reduce the amount of flow that could go that way. 

In the end the thing that worries me the most is what affect will whatever they choose to do have on his heart?  I honestly 100% believe when they change the pressures of how the blood flows to his brain and arm it WILL change the pressures in his heart and the word "stable" will be on hold for a while. 

I can tell you I'm REALLY glad it's VBS week at our church.  I truly am needing to be around my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ so I can be brought back to His feet through this.  Prayers would be appreciated.