Thursday, June 25, 2009

bing's heart

From an email from my mother this morning:

Good morning all our circle of love,

Thanks for all your calls and visits during our crisis with Bing and Lane. He is resting well with all his family members, awaiting surgery tomorrow.

We have finally found out that Bing’s heart condition is a congenital heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot. He was what they use to describe as a "blue baby."

I will give you a text book paragraph courtesy of Teri Lee’s A&P class text book.

Tetralogy of Fallot, a complex congenital defect of the heart and major vessels, is the most common cause of cardiac cyanosis (blue) in newborn children, accounting for 10% of all congenital heart defects. First described by the French physician Fallot, the base of the heart seems to be twisted too much to the right, causing the aorta to be displaced to the right. The malpositioned aorta causes narrowing of the adjacent pulmonary artery, which results in pulmonary stenosis (narrowing). This limits the amount of blood that can enter the lungs to be oxygenated.
The reduced oxygen in Bing's blood led to his collapsing episodes. UW did his first repair as a 3-year-old –repairing the septum between the L and R ventricles, which is why he was flighted to UW for the correction tomorrow. He will have open heart surgery where they will correct his pulmonic valve and possibly install wiring for a defib unit and/or a pacemaker. Bing is not a usual case of this defect. He is robust and in shape and did not manifest symptoms until the last few years. We are trusting in our Big God for Him to extend His hand to Bing, Lane, and Maddox to give them the life He has planned for them.

We covet your prayers and love so much.

This is all I've got... Mom's got a friend willing to answer questions, but I won't hand her number out to you, dear internet. Thanks to all offering help to Lane and Bing in Seattle. I've extended the offers and will let Lane take it from there. The good news is that this is the surgery Bing's needed for a while, and he's being taken care of. Other than a successful surgery and quick recovery (he will have his chest cracked, after all), a big prayer would be for financial provision and wisdom for that aspect in their lives.

And he's in good spirits, apologizing to me for not being able to come to Spokane to help fix up the house this weekend. I grudgingly forgave him, even though I was really really REALLY excited for all the time with he and Lane. Also exciting was all the work they were going to do in exchange for donuts, but I suppose major heart surgery on one I love IS more important.

5 comments:

Gailzee said...

Thank you for all the info! I have just come to love Bing so much and I am very grateful that this has taken place so that Bing can get the replacement parts he needs!Our God is an awesome God. His riches know no bounds and he loves Bing so much! Enough that He wants Bing to experience his love and healing touch! Yea! For God and Bing!

aubyn said...

Won't Bing feel better with this new valve or whatever he gets? Liek have more energy or sleep better? Can you ask your medical friend this?

How long is recovery?

Will Lane need to go back to work fulltime? we could start a Childcare calendar...

Andrea said...

They have an army of prayer warriors here lifting them up!!

Janelle Wilson said...

If only Maddox didn't poop in his pants still. I think he could totally slip in unnoticed to the summer camp I'm working at....

Anonymous said...

An update from Bing's Mama - Bing still has pressure and pain in his chest and is handling it with morphine but he looks good and is in good spirits. The cardiac team has decided not to do a valve replacement at this time - the pulmonary valve has not deteriorated from the last time he was airlifted to Seattle in 2007. There is an electro physiology test scheduled for Friday to see how his heart is firing. They suspect that the scarring from his surgery when he was 14 months may be the cause and will do an ablation to circumvent the trouble spots. We are praying that this will cure it. If the ablation is not an option or if it is not successful, then they may need to install a defibulator. So we wait and see what tomorrow brings. Thank you all for your prayers and support. We love you all.