Ava is being prepped for her CT scan right now. The scan will happen around 11:30 (or so - they have to coordinate all the right people being there). She will be sedated with Ativan and will be intubated (put on a ventilator) to keep her calm, comfy and completely still for the scan. There was some debate earlier this morning about whether or not the CT scan would happen today - they were considering doing an MRI as an alternative, because 1) the CT scan involves giving contrast which can be damaging to the kidneys and there is a possibility that her kidneys may be what is causing the high blood pressure so we don't want to do any further damage if we don't need to be, and 2) the coarctation, if there is indeed one, seems to be quite mild (for the medically inclined the reasons why they think it may be mild are: the flow of blood through the artery is not impaired, the blood pressure difference between her upper and lower extremeties is not huge and her femoral pulse is normal) and Ava is not in any immediate danger. The decision was made to go ahead with the CT scan today, mainly (we think) because of scheduling - a CT scan can happen today whereas the MRI we may need to wait a week for and there are risks to Ava being hypertensive (having the high blood pressure) for a week while we wait.
If a coarctation is found in the CT scan today and it is determined that action should be taken, there is a (slight) chance that Ava may go into surgery this afternoon(AKK!!). We think this possibility is actually fairly low (again, because the coarctation seems to be quite mild), but you just never know. We are trying to be prepared for any possibility and things can change very fast around here.
We'll try to update this as quickly as we can, as we know everyone is very worried (as we are). We have recevied some great confirmation that Stanford is the best place to be for Ava right now. It is good to be in the heart business! (Thanks to Fred, Amr and Dr. Ziyad Hijazi...)
To keep our spritis up here, we are trying to keep in mind our fortunes from after lunch yesterday. Jeff's read: "Be patient. Good things come to those who wait." and Linsey's read: "You are in good hands." :)
Here are some pictures of Ava we took this morning before the hoopla began. Enjoy...