I kind of knew this was coming

Heidi had her cardiology visit today. The good news is that her heart function and overall health remain excellent, and her valve insufficiencies are unchanged. Unfortunately though she will not get her New Year's wish of "no hospitals and no IVs" as she needs to go into the cath lab.

Most likely her procedure will take place sometime in April. In essence, she will have closed-heart surgery to place a device that will close a small hole left after her last surgery. While this opening allowed pressures to equalize, it is now time to close it so her oxygen saturations can rise closer to a normal level. If all goes well, we are looking at a 1-2 day stay in the hospital. I expect during that time she will watch a year's worth of videos while her desparate parents will attempt to keep her still for at least 6 hours.

If you want to know about Heidi's heart defect, you may begin here.