Thursday, May 24, 2007

Brandon's Heart

Here's a letter I sent out yesterday to all our friends and family. I thought others might want to have this news as well.


Dear Family and Friends,

Some of you already know that Brandon was diagnosed with a heart murmur before we left the hospital.

On Monday, we had a check up with a pediatric cardiologist from Cook Children's Hospital in Ft. Worth. After looking at the echocardiogram(sono of the heart), the doctor determined that there is moderate to severe blockage of his pulmonary valve. At this point, Brandon's heart is strong and healthy, but this condition is one that if let go, would eventually lead to symptoms that would damage his heart. With that in mind, the doctor wants to do a cardiac catherization. The procedure is called a Pulmonary Balloon Valvuloplasty. Basically, it's the same procedure as an angioplasty, except done on the heart valve, not the arteries. This is actually a fairly common procedure, and though there is some risk involved, it is less than 1%. They will be putting Brandon under general anesthesia for the two hours it will take them to complete the catherization. He should not have any side effects afterwards other than possibly small changes in his eating and sleeping routine.

The procedure is scheduled for June 6th at 9:30 in the morning. It will be done at Cook Children's Hospital in Ft. Worth. He will have to stay over night for observation, and if his post-op labs are clear, he will be released on Thursday, the 7th.

Please keep us all in prayer. Though the doctors are assuring us of a good outcome and low risk, etc, etc, it is still scary to have our baby going through so much! Pray that we would be able to find a peace in the midst of all of this and be able to restfully trust in God's providential workings in our life.

I will keep everyone informed on Brandon's condition as I am able.

God bless,
Rebekah

3 comments:

Grace said...

hey there. i'm sorry to hear about brandon. he's so precious. what a joy it was to hold him the other day. well, i know that you've probably already made arrangements, but i just wanted to let you know that the option to stay here is always open. i didn't know if your whole family was going to come up but we've got plenty of room for a crowd anytime you need it. hope all goes well.

sarahdodson said...

Hey, Rebekah. I was so sad to hear about this. I'm praying for you and your dear family. May the Lord give you all great grace at this time and give great mercy to little Brandon. I can't imagine going through that:(

ps. Grace has gotten to hold Brandon and I HAVEN'T! No fair! :)

Rebekah said...

I'm sorry Grace got here before you did...just means you need to come see everyone here in Coleman! :)
Thanks so much for you prayers!