Update on Sammy....

[delvalle6]

So we had Sammy's post surgical follow up visit here (in Portland) last week. He has some fluid around his heart. The doctor seemed moderately concerned and upped his aspirin to 650mg every 6 hours. We go back on Monday for another echo to see if the fluid decreases, remains the same, or increases. If it decreases we continue with the aspirin, if it remains the same we continue with the aspirin and add lasix, if it increases we talk about "tapping into it" to remove the fluid.
Sammy is doing so well that I haven't told him about this at all. He doesn't need the stress and right now he seems sensitive to the thought of pain. He says his heart makes a "sucking" feeling when he gets nervous. He also says it feels like his heart pounds against his incision when he gets nervous.
Sammy is taking aspirin, lisinopril, and plavix. We are hoping to drop the lisinopril off within a short period of time and the plavix within a year. I don't know how long he'll be on the aspirin, but after this fluid episode goes away his dose will be just the 81mg daily.

 

[Bina]

You can tell Sammy that my heart also pounds against my sternum when I am nervous.....it is a weird feeling, but my meds sure help with it. Let's hope that the fluid situation resolves soon too.

 

[nngbwh]

Thanks for the update. Hope Monday will be good news.

 

[ottagal]

I will keep Sammy in my prayers. Hope things get better for him.

 

[Johan]

Hope Sammy improves steadily and can soon put this whole thing behind him and resume a normal active life. I also had fluid around the heart and it resolved within about 3 weeks with only aspirin..

 

[Michelle D]

I'm going back for fluid on my lungs Monday. I had fluid around my heart too. How far out from surgery is he? For many people the fluid goes away on it's own. A large dose of lasix done at the ER had decreased my fluid from a liter to a few ounces in two days. I don't know if they'd give that to children or not. Also there is prednisone, they had me on that for inflammation. It has very unpleasant side effects at high doses though. But for most people the fluid can go away on it's own eventually.

They treat the fluid on the heart and lungs the same. I just went back and saw it's been a little over two weeks, it seems like they would be rushing things if they drain it, it imagine they would try a diuretic or steroid first. I hope everything works out well and you go back to find the fluid reduced on it's own.