March 13, 2008

March 13

Yesterday included a magical moment. The father of Darren, the wonderful boy who gave his heart to Garrett, was in town briefly and called. Garrett has been asking so much about Darren, he wanted the chance to meet Darren's dad. We got that opportunity during a brief encounter, and Darren's dad was able to feel Garrett's heart beating strong and proud. It was very emotional and beautiful. Darren's family are quite special. We were able to see many photos of Darren, and Garrett came away with a new love, understanding and respect for his unselfish heart brother. His prayers last night were again for Darren and Megan.

Today's clinic report was great! Garrett's levels are right where they should be, and physically the physicians say that he is ahead of schedule. He continues to amaze the hospital staff at his resiliency and fight. In Garrett's class at school, each child has written "their" saying. Garrett listed two..."Cowboy Up" and "Bring It On".

Following about 3 hours of tests, echo's, EKGs, pokes, prods and blood tests, Garrett got to see his old heart. This was something I wanted to see just to help me understand further what went wrong. Garrett wanted to see it, too. Mommy declined.

The pathology reports and slides took my breath. I did not really completely understand just how bad it was until we saw everything. If you take a drinking straw and squish it between your fingers and try to take a sip, you'll have an idea of how little blood Garrett was getting. The walls of the "good" artery were so thick, they almost touches sides. Garrett got to hold his heart (not something you get to do every day) and he even let his sister hold it. The pathology doctor was also great at explaining to them how the physical heart works and what no longer worked in Garrett's case, causing the need for his brand new heart, which by the way, looks fantastic on the Echo monitor. What power!

I think seeing it helped them both understand why he got sick, that he is better now, and that the physical heart is just tissue that can be replaced. The heart we love with is permanent. This is where we feel the love of the person who gave us the heart, and are able to love others in return.

In yet another example of how great God's works prove to be, the doctors explained to us today that during Garrett's 1st transplant, they had to cut all the nerves around his heart. They shouldn't have regenerated and he shouldn't have felt any pain. The difference is that they did regenerate and they did send him a signal that he was hurt. That is why we kept trying to find out what was wrong. That is also why no one expected a heart problem, because his heart shouldn't have hurt. But it did! If not for those nerves regenerating and him feeling the pain, he likely would have just dropped at some point soon, and we would have never known there was a problem.

Tell me what is impossible with God?!?

If anyone out there questions the goodness of our Lord, or the presence of our Creator, feel free to give me a call. We need to talk.

JD