I'll begin with my manna for today:
Psalm 71:14-16 (NIV)
As for me, I will always have hope;
I will praise you more and more.
My mouth will tell of your righteous deeds,
of your saving acts all day long—
though I know not how to relate them all.
I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, Sovereign LORD;
I will proclaim your righteous deeds, yours alone.
"I will always have hope", I love that!
I didn't always..... have hope.
It's just that sometimes, things happen. Things that shift your focus. "Rock your world" kind of things.
But, that's another story. I want to finish this one
I guess I was talking about "the surgery"
When we finally got to see Scotty, he was surrounded by machines, and tubes of every shape and color. A tube to give him breath, a tube for fluids, and drain tubes. He was connected to a large machine that pumped the blood for the right side of his heart, called an RVAD and another for the left, an LVAD. VAD stands for Ventricular Assist Device. It was somewhat overwhelming, except that all I remember was, He was alive! Nothing else mattered.
The very next day they had to take him back to OR for what they called a "washout". Clean up of leaking vessels.
He hadn't awakened as yet, they were keeping him sedated, in a coma-like state.
Because his condition was so poor when they first operated, I'm not sure they expected him to have any brain function. But God had a better idea!
The day they "wakened" him, my manna was from Ephesians 5:14. It says:
"Therefore He says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine (make day dawn) upon you and give you light."
WOW! Talk about just what you need! And he did too, he woke up. His doctor was there when he fluttered his eye lids, and moved his fingers, and responded to commands! When the anesthesiologist stopped by later, Scotty,s doctor told him, "This is that kid we operated on, he woke up!" like he was surprised!
After that, it was kind of one-day-at-a-time for us. But we kept on fighting and standing our ground. I have it recorded somewhere how many, but he had several surgeries, including a lobectomy for a lung infection, but he always came through. And every time they took him away to surgery, I told the doctors, I was praying for them.
Then one day they told us the RVAD had stopped functioning, because of a blood clot. Dave was there when they did the echo, and they could see this long, stringy clot fluttering with every heartbeat clogging up the RVAD. This was very serious. The clot could break off and it would kill him. But they didn't think his heart would function without the RVAD. So they wanted to take him to surgery immediately, but the doctor that was trained for this was already operating on another patient. Plus, there were no more surgery suites available either.
His transplant co-ordinator left the room in tears. He had survived so much and come so far, only to have it end like this.
As I write this, it seems unbelievable. How could this be happening? And yet I wasn't moved! They may have thought I was unhinged. Somehow I knew that the God who had brought us this far, would not forsake us now. When they finally took him to surgery they removed the RVAD.Against all odds, they were able to remove the clot in one piece. And beyond all expectations, the right side of his heart beat under its own power.
There were many days after that, when all I could do was hold his hand, and I know he liked that, and I think it was as much for me as for him. In fact if we didin't get to the hospital soon enough, he would have the nurses call us. And still we persevered.
He had been in Intensive Care for two and a half months, it was getting close to New Year's Day, and suddenly we saw drastic improvement. Like he really was better! He wanted to eat, he wanted to walk.
He stayed a total of 101 days at the U of M Hospital.
This March 1st, we celebrated the sixth anniversary of his heart transplant!
There are so many other details that I could add, and maybe I will some day. For me, today, this is enough.
And his story isn't over either. He is normal in every way. He has issues, yes, but I am confident that those issues will be resolved.
And...As for me, I will always have hope.
