Stephanie Goldstein

On today's episode of Life's Accessories, Rachel and Stephanie were honored to welcome award-winning book author, freelance writer, and blogger Diana Bletter. Her accessory? Probably the most important one, that not even money can buy: her self esteem. Diana shares why loving and caring for yourself is so important, and how she has incorporated that concept into her life's work. With a tremendous amount of gratitude, Rachel and Stephanie were able to speak with Diana who lives in Israel.

Mortality and morbidity after single ventricle palliation have improved significantly in the modern era, particularly once the palliation was staged to include the bidirectional Glenn or hemi-Fontan procedure which involves superior cavopulmonary connection. Reference Castaneda1,Reference DeLeon, Idriss and Ilbawi2 One such improvement was a decrease in post-operative pleural effusions after the Fontan procedure in patients who had undergone a prior superior cavopulmonary connection.

Post-operative pleural effusions in Fontan patients are common, with prolonged effusions seen in 20–45% of patients. Reference Feinstein, Benson and Dubin1–Reference Kim, Ko and Byun3 Pleural effusions remain a significant source of morbidity associated with increased post-operative intensive care and hospital length of stay Reference Ono, Burri and Balling4 .