Friday The 13th.

Friday the 13th. turned out to hold good news for Teresa.

I am a little reluctant to post this because I am feeling a bit confused .
Last month while Teresa was in and out of the hospital being treated for further heart failure, fluid retention, low oxygen saturation and low energy , she was seen by 2 different Doctors who were covering for Dr. H while he was on vacation . They were very concerned with the direction that Teresa was headed. They thought that this could possibly be Teresa's new level of normal for her and were not very optimistic.

Today Dr. H was back from vacation and reviewed all of Teresa's reports and tests from last month and tests done today . He was pleasantly optimistic. (His words ). As he explained it to me , her lungs were "wet" because the new meds. were doing their job . Her heart was pumping more blood to her lungs and dilating them more. Today also revealed that her heart function had actually improved from last month and her severe tricuspid regurgitation was almost completely gone . At this point I was sitting there feeling VERY confused and made sure that Alex was paying attention so he could relay all this information to Ed too.

Dr. H feels Teresa is ready for the next step . That is one of three things.
1. Lower her meds. and do nothing ( she can not stay on this high of a dose because it is causing her heart to pump too much blood to her lungs)
2. try to repair her heart.
3. a heart transplant.

The next step is to re cath. her on Wed. and see exactly what her numbers are in her lungs and heart and see how much the meds. have helped. This will give him a better idea on how to proceed.

I am going to wait until wed. when we have further concrete results until I express any type of joy . The highs and lows are just too much and I want actual numbers and not, "well, we feel like this is happening ... " I need more than a feeling .

So for today , she is still on oxygen all the time because her lungs are still wet and her o2 is very low, (she is retaining fluid caused by the meds.) so her lasix is being increased . We will return to CHOP on Wed. morning , have the heart cath. , stay one night and come home on Thursday , hopefully with very concrete fantastic news . Then we will celebrate with great joy . Until then I am remaining cautiously optimistic.