July 6, 2009

Friends, we just received some wonderful news from the cardiologist, but first I'll give you our status.

Steph got through the c-section like it was nothing, and was up and walking around once the morphine wore off. It was her first, and I got to watch, but the doctors didn't want my help, even though I told them that I've helped deliver goats. Since I did watch, I'm in awe at how tough my wife is.

The hardest part was having the baby whisked away after only a kiss on the cheek. It took about 12 hours to get an IV in her umbilical cord, x-ray her, get an ecocardiogram, get another IV in her forearm, and finally clean her.

It was evident at birth that there are at least markers of Turner Syndrome, which is only found in girls (missing X chromosome). We're still waiting for the results of the chromosome test to verify this. If she does have this, it's a miracle that she survived, because 98% of such cases end in miscarriage.

Turner babies don't have a likelihood of success with the triple or quadruple heart surgeries that we anticipated. So when the call came in just now that her aortic valve, mitral valve, and left ventricle are borderline acceptable, it was a tremendous relief. I know God heard your prayers, and I owe you more than I could ever repay.

So the only problem remaining, as far as we know, is a repair of the aortic arch, which is a one-time open-heart surgery in a couple of days from now. Since the valves won't be touched, she has a good likelihood of success. Right now we have a concern about plural effusion, which is excess fluid around the lungs. If she has Turner's, she won't grow very tall and might have some vision and hearing problems. There are a lot of unknowns in how she can turn out, depending on whether she got her X chromosome from me or Steph. At any rate, she'll never be a world-class athlete, but neither are her parents.

We'll just continue to pray for the best, and we thank you all for your support and friendship. Pictures will follow. Geneva will be hospitalized for weeks still, and this is very hard on all of us, but we eagerly await the day when the family can be reunited.

With love,
Harry