Ella's Heart Tests

Ella had a big day on Monday at DeVos Children's Hospital. She had a pulmonary perfusion scan in which they injected her with nuclear medicine and then took pictures of her lungs to see how much oxygen was flowing through each one. Then she had a chest CT scan. She had to be sedated for these pictures so she could lie completely still in the new machine which takes picture slices from different angles and produces 3-D images. Everyone at the hospital was lovely and caring and great with Ella. Other than getting the initial IV in her wrist, she was a good girl and did well with the nurses and doctors.

Today, Dr. Schneider called with the test results, and a had a very good report to share with us. The pulmonary fusion exam showed a symmetric distribution of oxygen between the right and left lungs. The right lung was using 54% oxygen, and the left lung 46%. This was pleasantly surprising, because surgery would not be necessary unless the percents were split dramatically, more than a 80%/20% split. The CT scan showed that the left and right pulmonary arteries are both average in size and growing. There was no discrepancy in size and no narrowing of the left pulmonary artery like originally noted in her open heart surgery.

Yes, she is growing healthy and strong, and her heart, too. This is the best news that we could have received, and we are praising God for our little miracle girl. She'll have a routine cardiologist appointment in 6 months at which time they'll listen to her heart and take blood pressure, just normal stuff. It may be several more years before they need to do in-depth testing like this again. It's definitely not something that will be done every year due to the high amount of radiation in the CT scan.