Garcia Family Journey : Our Lives with HHT: Children's Hospital

In June of 2015, we were headed back to Children's Hospital to get miss Bug's pulmonary AVM's plugged. This by far was probably much more scary for mom and dad then for her. This procedure was done via a cardiac catheter that was inserted in the artery near her groin, went up through her heart and then into her lung to put a small coil into the AVM to essentially block the blood running to the malformation.

We had to be at the hospital bright and early at 6am for check in. They did the preliminary blood work etc, explained to her what was going to happen (Children's Hospital is amazing about doing this) and then we said our goodbyes and they wheeled her back.

To our surprise one of our pastor's from church came and sat with us until she was back and settled. It was wonderful to have him come and pray with us all, and he and his wife even brought Bug a little gift which was so sweet.

Once she was back and in the procedure we got a phone call from the cath lab letting us know that she was all settled. She was a little scared once they got there, but was a trooper and went down easy after a little more talking. The procedure itself was about a two and a half hours long and they called us about once an hour to keep us posted. Once she was done and in the recovery room she apparently woke up and had to go potty, but refused to use the diaper they had put her in (we had just recently potty trained, and once she was potty trained there was no going back!). So they had to pick her up and keep her leg as straight as they could to let her go. She is clearly my child...

After we finally got to our room we had six hours of laying flat. When they originally had told us about this part, I being her mother, was a bit skeptical as to how we were supposed to get a three year old to sit still and lay flat for that long. Amazingly though, she did with the help of lots of movies and lots of popsicles.

After another night in the hospital and another heart echo, we were ready to go home once again! This procedure made an amazing difference for her. Prior to the AVM being plugged her blood oxygen levels on average were running around 91% (a normal level should be around 98%), after the plug they almost immediately jumped to 98%! A HUGE difference. I didn't think she could possibly have more energy, but she does now! :)

Hopefully the other small pulmonary AVM's that she has will never grow, but we will have to keep an eye on them over the years. For now we are happy to have a for all things considered very happy and healthy little girl.