God works in mysterious ways

As some of you know, Joel has been sick most of the fall, winter and now spring. He's been on many courses of antibiotics. After two hospitalizations at Christmas and just after his birthday, an echocardiogram was done and the cardiac team determined that Joel had outgrown his artificial heart valve and needed a new one. We couldn't believe it, didn't want to believe it as we'd been told when he'd had the last one at age 4, that he wouldn't need it replaced again for 5 to 7 years. It had been exactly three years. Mike and I both hoped that they'd suddenly decide they'd been wrong and Joel didn't need the surgery again already. But when they told us about his "numbers" on the echo and the "juiceyness" of his enlarged vessels on the x-rays, we thought it must be so. Joel continued to get sick repeatedly, spike fevers and was hospitalized again in March, the day before his heart surgery was scheduled to take place... and his surgery was postponed. It was rescheduled for tomorrow, April 9th.

Yesterday we went to the cardiologist with Timmy, for an annual echo and exam by the cardiologist. I held Timmy down and talked and sang to him during the echo (he has a lot of sensory issues-- why are those rooms always so hot?) and then gave the second half of the visit over to Mike and I waited with Joel and Ella in the waiting room.

Mike and the cardiologist came out with Timmy and the doctor sat down with us in the waiting room and told us that Timmy's doing well... and Joel's echo from his last hospitalization looked so much better that the cardiac team met again and decided to cancel his heart surgery indefinitely!

I was astonished! Months and weeks of trying to keep him away from people who are sick, preparing for surgery, being afraid of losing him, everything. And here he was telling me my dearest hopes were being realized-- that they weren't going to have to do the surgery after all. !!! The sense of relief in not having to do that surgery now, and being (hopefully) able to wait another 6 months or more (maybe a couple of years?) until he has surgery again is wonderful and here is why: Because the bigger he gets between surgeries, the bigger the heart valve they can fit in there, and the fewer surgeries he will have to have throughout his life. Once he has reached his adult size, he shouldn't have to have more replacement valves!

So here we are, with Joel who doesn't have to have heart surgery and will be seen again in 6 months if all goes well, and before they do heart surgery again they said they will do a cath first, to be sure he needs it!

We are to treat his coughing as asthma as we did before, and let them know if there are further changes. He was sick the rest of the day so we were back to the pediatrician this morning again...and as soon as we can finish clearing up the rash on his bottom that he probably got from the hospital, he can go back to school! He'll be excited about that, he loves to go to school!

Thank you Heavenly Father for healing our little boy's heart to allow him time to grow a little more!