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Monday, March 31, 2008

Posted Mar 31, 2008 5:38pm

McKenzie is not progressing as expected, so the doctors have decided to take another look at her vessels going from the heart to her lungs. She went into the heart catheretzation lab about an hour ago. They will insert a catheter, which will inject dye into her system and see how the blood is flowing. From there, they will determine whether her shunt is operating effectively, whether the collateral vessels she created with the shunt are giving too much blood to her lungs, and they could conduct other procedures if necessary. Hopefully, this will give us answers as to why her progression is not as speedy as expected.

On the good side, she did have the IV removed from her jugular vein. She hated it! Now, she may be more inclined to lie on her right side and not only on the left. The left side of her face gets swollen when she only lays on the left, but she never wanted to lay the other way because the plastic parts for the IV were uncomfortable and cut into her neck.

Before the catheterization, McKenzie had her eyes open for quite a while and was looking around and checking everything out. She is definitely getting to be older and much more aware of her surroundings. It is nice to see her maturing, even if it is in a hospital room. We have assured her that there is more to the world than tubes, beeping, and people in scrubs. I'm sure she understands and that is why she is fighting so hard.
Mel

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