Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow

Yesterday was Noah's heart cath. We got up early and arrived at UCLA at 7:30 ready to check in.  Noah's procedure was delayed by two hours but we kept busy by playing games on the ipad.  Noah was nervous and asked us to pray for him.  Truthfully he wasn't the only one nervous.  We were scared for what the doctors might find when they went in to take a closer look at his heart.  It had been 15 months since his last heart cath procedure.  Finally they were ready to take Noah back.  We gave him a kiss and told him we would be in recovery when he woke up.  Jason and I went to the cafeteria to get some lunch.  We talked about the number of times Jason has had to say goodbye to one of us as they wheeled us off into surgery.  He remarked that it never gets easier and is not looking forward to the day Noah gets his new heart.  I was super tired from lack of sleep the night before.  My body had come down with Vertigo and the drugs that I was taking to help keep the room from spinning were making me loopy.  I wanted nothing more than to find an empty hospital bed and take a long nap. Yep you read that right Vertigo.  I laughed when the day before the nurse told me it could last for several months.  I looked up at the ceiling and said "really Lord?" "Throw me a bone or take me home".  My bone would soon come.  After we ate lunch jason and I went to wait in the waiting room.  The nurse came by and asked if our last name was Lietzau.  She handed me a phone and told me the doctor would like to speak with us.  Let me just stop and say it is torture when this happens because you have no idea what your about to hear.  They have your precious child in an operating room and you are not thinking roses and rainbows you are thinking the worst has happened.  The doctor started with your son is fine and we are all finished.  Then says you know what let me come down and talk to you.  I have no idea what he is going to explain to us but at this point I'm thinking a hospital stay is in our future. Here is the following conversation:

Hi Dr. Alejos.  He stands there with a smile and explains to Jason and I that Noah's pressures looked so good.  He said it's pretty unbelievable but they are in the normal range.  What?? He says, we thought his numbers looked well last year only increasing by one but they are actually better than when he was first listed.  This does not mean that he is cured but they think he could wait a year or two for transplant.  He goes on to say the medications he is on are obviously doing there job and we will just monitor him closely every two months.  WOW!!!  What?? What does this mean???  Well it means that we can't explain his nasty abnormal EKG, and he still has restrictive cardiomyopathy. but the longer he can wait to have a transplant the better for him.   They still need to go over all the results with the transplant team before they make him inactive on the list.  If they do decide to take him off the list he wont lose any of  the last two years of time he has occurred.  When he gets put back on he will still have all that time.  If he got a call tonight though Dr. Alejos said  I would for sure turn it down.  WOW!! This means we will be able to travel and not be stuck close to the hospital.  I asked him about Hume Lake.  Noah has been sad to miss the last few years. He said he had a test they could do to check how his heart handled the elevation.  If he handles it ok than yes he can.  WAHOO!!  He told us he would be in touch and walked away.

We both stood there stunned.  There was my bone.  A mighty big one too I might add. Unbelievable.  We are so happy but know at the same time how drastic things could change in a second. So we want to hold this loosely.   For now we are taking it and are so relieved in so many ways.  Thank you Jesus for this gift. We will keep you all informed as we learn more about what the transplant team has decided and what this will mean for Noah.  Thank you once again for being faithful to pray for us in this long journey.

Ps. Please look pass all my ugly grammar mistakes.  I'm not good with writing to begin with and having vertigo makes it even more challenging :)