In My Shoes: Cross Your Fingers

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Cross Your Fingers

God just picked us up! He knew we were having trouble doing this without his help.

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Fiona just got a call from her pulmonologist. He spoke with the pulmonologist from the second transplant center and it was indicated that they are going to do these next tests to try to prove heptopulmonary syndrome. It is a very rare case and they are going to fight for her! Cross your fingers and say prayers! This just may be the answer to the all our prayers.

If she gets the heptopulmonary syndrome diagnosis, this will give her enough points on the waiting list scale to shoot her to the top of the list. That would mean she would be transplanted VERY SOON. Hope they can get the information they need to prove this otherwise we are in a world of hurt and she will have to get much, much sicker.

Trying to breathe!
Peggy

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Biliary Atresia

Biliary atresia is a condition in which the ducts that carry bile from the liver to the gallbladder and small intestine are not normal. These ducts can be injured, blocked, or missing. When the ducts that carry bile out of the liver are closed, bile backs up and damages liver tissue. In time the liver can develop scarring or cirrhosis. The gallbladder may also be abnormal or missing. The cause of Biliary Atresia is unknown. It occurs in one infant in every 15,000 live births. It is a serious disease which requires immediate surgical and medical treatment.

Arteriovenous Malformations AVMS

I have been diagnosed with AVMS in my lungs do to my liver disease. These have caused me to have 2 lung bleeds which were very scary. I still have more AVMS and they are causing me breathing problems. Below is an explanation of what the AVMs are and a picture of what is happening in my lungs.

Arteries and veins are part of the human cardiovascular system. Normally, the arteries in the vascular system carry oxygen-rich blood at a relatively high pressure. Structurally, arteries divide and sub-divide repeatedly, eventually forming a sponge-like capillary bed. Blood moves through the capillaries, giving up oxygen and taking up waste products from the surrounding cells. Capillaries successively join together, one upon the other, to form the veins that carry blood away at a relatively low pressure. The heart acts to pump blood from the low pressure veins to the high pressure arteries.
If the capillary bed is thought of as a sponge, then an AVM is the rough equivalent of jamming a tangle of flexible soda straws from artery to vein through that sponge. On arteriogram films AVM formation often resemble a tangle of spaghetti noodles. This tangle of blood vessels forms a relatively direct connection between high pressure arteries and low pressure veins.
The result is a collection of blood vessels with abnormal connections and no capillaries. This collection, often called a nidus, can be extremely fragile and prone to bleeding.