As sure as the sun. There are few things in this life that are as sure as the rising and setting of the sun. Its dependability is in stark contrast to many things in our ever-shifting lives. It’s easy for me to compare my God to the reliability of the rising and setting of the sun. Even when all else around me is as unstable as quicksand, His presence, peace, and mercy in the midst of it are certain.
I have good news. I have a good truth. God’s mercy is not at an end.
About three months ago, I looked at Thelo’s echocardiogram and saw an unexpected image: a very symmetrical-looking heart. I immediately thought back to the image I saw in South Africa of the first time I had seen Thelo’s heart with a symmetrical shape when it was hardly moving and full of fluid. This time, I gazed at it with curiosity as it jumped and pulsed on the screen. When I mentioned it to Thelo’s cardiologist with a question in my tone, he simply stared at me with a look of concern. “It is [symmetrical]. And I’m not sure why. It’s a puzzle, but in a good way.” Six weeks later, he was more enthusiastic when he reported Thelo’s left ventricle had not only maintained its shape, but also its strength. Its function had surpassed the function of his right ventricle, which had always been the healthier of the two. The cardiologist tempered his report with a reminder that Thelo’s heart was still not functioning as well as a normal heart.
Thelo has a variant of HLHS, born with a portion of his left ventricle, in a disproportionate shape; long and narrow. Thelo’s left ventricle is not disproportionately long and narrow anymore. Compounding this miraculous change in shape, it has also changed in function. Prior to our departure from South Africa, through the addition of two new medications, Thelo’s poor heart function was stabilized. The medications can partially explain why his heart didn’t fail altogether, but can’t explain his ventricle’s change in shape or overall improvement.**
At our recent clinic visit to Duke last week, Thelo saw his transplant team. Everyone was all smiles and very excited about Thelo’s increase in function and overall improvement. By overall improvement I mean this:
Thelo has gained a pound of weight in the last 4 weeks. This means he has gained an average of 16 grams per day over the last month. Up until now, he had gained an average of four grams per day since we returned in August, which was inadequate.
His appetite has increased dramatically. He’s still a picky two year old, but compared to when we were in South Africa, where he was vomiting upwards of 2 times a day and unable to eat more than a few bites per meal unless it was blended into a liquid, it is a night and day kind of comparison.
We have had to decrease his diuretic medication. His normal dose has been cut in half because his normal dose started drying him up too much.
Thelo’s blood test also showed this:
For those of you versed in this terminology, my explanations, research, and the like are severely inadequate. For those of you like me, not versed in this, this picture is simply showing the markers in his blood for severe heart failure have gone from over 1000 (really bad) to right around 200 (fantastic for a kid with his heart). What this also means is this:
This month, he moves to inactive status on the heart transplant list. This means, if a heart match were to come available, we wouldn’t take it because right now, he doesn’t need it. WOO!
I don’t claim to know the future or what Thelo’s heart will be doing in a month from now, but I’m personally begging God to let me rejoice. To allow me not to dread the future, but to praise Him in this day of health, to marvel at the goodness of His ability to sustain even a broken little heart like Thelo’s, because today, it’s a little less broken.
The good news in this update isn’t as reliable as THE Good News of the Gospel. Its truth isn’t eternal like the Truth proclaimed from God’s Word in the Bible, but, quite simply, it’s amazing and an answer to prayer. The prayers you ask on our behalf haven’t gone unheard. Rejoice with us!
**After a more in-depth discussion with Thelo’s cardiologist, I’m amending this post: This past week, the doctor showed me several echocardiogram images; One dating from shortly after Thelo’s birth, another during his illness in South Africa, and his most recent healthy one from February. (I really appreciate him taking the time!) As an inexperienced viewer, I can definitely see the varying increase and decrease in function of Thelo’s heart, but I am unable to quantify/qualify a definite change in shape or symmetry. My initial impressions and interpretation of subsequent conversations with the sonographer and cardiologist led me to believe there was a definite change in the symmetry of Thelo’s heart, but this may or may not be the case, depending on the position of the “camera” and his heart at any given moment.
Slow to Speak 