The Cath Lab

Nathan's procedure was scheduled for Tuesday morning, October 23rd, at 7:30am.

The good thing about being the first on the schedule is that there is a very low likelihood that you will be bumped.

But it also meant that we had to get up at 5:30am in order to get ready and be there in time to be with Nathan before the procedure.

In order to close the VSD, the plan was to insert a catheter into a blood vessel near Nathan's groin and then advance it up to one side of his heart, through the hole into the other side of the heart and then advance it out through Nathan's neck.

Half of a closure device, or occluder disk, is then inserted in through the catheter in the groin and the other half through the catheter in the neck. They are then advanced toward the VSD where the disks are connected to close the hole. Over time, the heart tissue would then grow around the occluder making it a permanent part of the heart.

We arrived at the hospital and got to spend about 20 - 30 minutes with Nathan before the medical team began to arrive to take him down to the Cath Lab. It took nearly a whole team to transport Nathan from his room on the 4th Floor to the 1st Floor where the Cath Lab is.

We followed them down to the entrance of the Cath Lab where we gave Nathan our love and told him that we would be back to see him once the procedure was over.

They gave us a restaurant-type buzzer and told us that they would page us when the procedure was over.

And then we waited.