Possible Adjustments

Yesterday Roscoe had a very rough day. He did well over night, but then had several desaturations during the day (the first of which required him to be manually ventilated). He also had some heart rate drops, but nothing that caused him to need chest compressions. For the second half of the day he was more stable because they kept him well sedated. It was Alisha's 28-year birthday and Roscoe's 9-month birthday, but I'm sure it wasn't the way that either of them wanted to spend it. Thankfully, he ended the day on a good note with his saturations in the 90's and his heart rate in the 130's while he rested.

We also plan to have a discussion with Dr. Fineman about the plan for Roscoe's intervention. The "original" plan (from early last week) was to insert a stent this week, allow Roscoe to recover, treat him aggressively with medication, and then perform surgery if he responds well. Dr. Fineman has already been treating Roscoe with some of the medications and they seem to be helping his saturations greatly. For instance, one drug (called iloprost) causes his saturation levels to go from the 70's to the 90's within a few minutes of being administered.

We heard from another doctor that Dr. Fineman may want to speak with us today about possibly skipping the stenting process. If he is able to treat Roscoe aggressively with medication to get him adequately strengthened for surgery, it will save Roscoe time and recovery from an unnecessary catheterization and stenting. We haven't yet spoken to Dr. Fineman about this proposal. Once we speak with him and the surgeon to understand potential risks, then we'll let everyone know about the plan for Roscoe's future.

Below is a video showing Alisha wearing a breathing mask after Roscoe gets one of his breathing treatments. Like the bosentan, these medications will hopefully be beneficial for Roscoe but they may be very harmful for us.