Update on Joseph's Heart Surgery !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, here it is:

Joseph WILL be having heart surgery, two of them in fact, and a pacemaker. The truth is Joseph's heart is weak and getting weaker. Joseph could go into heart failure at any time !! He has about 5 years (10 at best), and he won't survive childhood with his heart the way it is right now. Joseph is only 7. When we heard that his life expectancy is only 12 years old to 17 at best, that was scary. There is no way to know if his heart will even last that long. We pray his heart lasts another day and another day and another. He has chest pain on and off pretty much every day, even just touching his chest. VERY SCARY ! More and more often, he comes and stops playing and sits down next to me asking for a hug and says "My heart hurts." It is such a challenge with him being on activity restrictions. He is on medication to decrease the inflammation in his heart. We can't wait for a heart transplant because it is not a perfect solution either. First, they might not find a heart. Second, he would require lifelong antirejection medication. Third, even heart transplants can fail. Then, he would be out of luck. So, we have to do surgery. He is being referred to one of the few pediatric cardiology specialists in the country who knows how to do the surgery who lucky for us is up in Stanford in California. The heart surgery is extremely complex because not only do they have to do the procedure to fix his heart, but they also have to undo everything that was done in the first two surgeries. His surgery, being two of them, may probably require travel. We don't know. We are waiting for the specialist to review Joseph's medical records, so we can move on to the next step. So many steps.

Every morning, I make sure Joseph is still with us and breathing and ok. His heart gets so low when he sleeps. When he goes to sleep at night, we just don't know if he will wake up. We just don't know if it will be one day here, one day gone. We are just enjoying his presence every day.

Please join us in prayer for Joseph, for the heart surgeon, for the money for the heart surgery, for the money for the travel (probably), and for a speedy recovery. Mostly, we pray that when the time comes and the Lord does call him home to heaven (hopefully later rather than sooner), that angels carry him through those heavenly pearly gates into Jesus waiting arms to be with our Lord forever.

If you would like to help financially towards Joseph's surgery, we would be ever most grateful. You can click on the donate button at the bottom of the posts on our blog www.richardsonstudios.blogspot.com.

Prayers are always welcome ! We are praying for miracles here for our lively, affectionate, tenacious, lovable little boy.

Jennifer