Ode To My Right Coronary Artery.

My cardiologist just called me in regards to my CT scan last week. The scan showed that I have an anomalous origin of the right coronary artery. Basically one coronary artery is supposed to come off each side of the heart and supply that side of the heart muscle with blood. The artery that supplies the right side of my heart actually originates on the left side of my heart (so both of my arteries originate on one side (the left side)).

This may need to be fixed at the time I have surgery. It can cause a lot of problems if left alone; but fixing it can also cause a lot problems (there is a high incidence of early graft failure). The likely solution would be a bypass of this artery. One of the problems with doing this is the durability of a bypass. Since I am so young my cardiologist is concerned with the ability of a correction to last for 60+ years. I will be speaking with my surgeon about this in the next few days; but he likely wont know whether he is going to fix it until he actually gets in there and sees what it looks like.

One good thing

So word travels fast down the Hudson family grapevine and I have been getting lots of supportive phone calls and messages from my extended family members. Today one of my uncles called me to tell me that he and his daughter (one of my closest cousins) are going to drive down (over?) from Arkansas for my surgery. That made me really happy. I wish it was under better circumstances but I am really excited about getting to chill with my cousin!

Oh and my mom took me shopping in Atlanta. Make that two good things.

Official Surgery Date!

So I am now officially scheduled for my Pulmonary valve replacement and possible Aortic valve repair at Emory Hospital on January 20th.

I was hoping I could get squeezed in earlier and get it over with, but really I am just glad to have a date.

Unfortunately the 20th is the Tuesday after MLK day (when Emory is closed) so I have to go down to Atlanta Friday for pre-op then come back to Chattanooga then go back to Atlanta Tuesday for surgery (or maybe we will just stay in Atlanta-logistics are still being worked on). It was either Jan 20th or December 23rd and I don't want to be in the ICU for Christmas- not because I care about Christmas that much (we aren't really even celebrating this year), but I don't want the 3rd string people who are pissed off to be working on Christmas taking care of me.

Here we go!

so now

I am scheduled to more tests the 18th and 19th. That was as early as they could get them all in a 2 day period and we are trying to avoid any more 6 hour trips than necessary. So....this means surgery not until the second week of January- tentatively scheduled for the 6th. I am so tired of waiting.

Emory Appointment

So I had my appt. at Emory.

Heard pretty much the same thing they told me in Texas a couple of months ago before I moved: Pulmonary Valve definitely needs replacing, Aortic valve is leaking but they arent sure what to do about it yet (it needs something sometime but- repair? replace? wait till the next inevitable PV replacement (im going tissue) and replace it then?)

Highlights:
My heart is apparently very photogenic and they asked if they could use my Echo (2 & 3D) images in a research study- (I said "sure!"). 3 or 4 different people came in and said things along the line of "wow those are some great images".

so now they want: a CT scan (well they wanted a MRI but the metal rods fused to my spine made that a no no); a Nuclear Stress Test, A Pulmonary Function Test, and they want me to go to the genetics clinic and get screened....they think I might have Noonan's syndrome (which apparently (my mother just told me) years and years ago my pediatrician thought I might have but eventually determined I didn't have enough features of (I clearly don't have any of the mental disability which is generally present)). If I do have it I am on the very high end of the spectrum. It would explain the concurrent PV and AV problems (concurrent PV stenosis and aortic regurgitation is apparently pretty rare)

so hopefully I will be going back down to Emory (6 hour round trip) one day next week to get all that done and then onward to surgery.

If there is room in the surgeons schedule we are looking at December 16th (the nurse said she thought there might be 1 open spot they could put me in) if not then then probably the week after Christmas.

Everyone was really nice and seemed on top of their game so I'm feeling pretty confident.

The nurse practitioner was GREAT about answering all my questions and addressing my concerns. Apparently she used to do pediatric ICU nursing and took care of me 22 years ago when I had my first surgery! Awesome!
She made me feel alot better, especially about my back. She even said she would make sure that they put extra padding on the operating table for me and gave me extra muscle relaxers and anti inflammatories afterward! Fantastic!

6 hours in the car and much waiting and testing later and I'm really freakin tired.