Kyle's Unexpected Surgery

ear Friends and Family,

Kyle was admitted to Banner Desert Hospital late last night. He had begun losing weight and at 7 months he weighed only 11 lbs... the size of a typically developing 2-3 month old baby boy. He was also displaying some other classic signs of heart failure including excessive sweating while nursing and becoming out of breath after tummy time or other strenuous activity like holding his head upright. His oxygen levels have stayed high and he has no fluid in his lungs. He is beginning to retain water, another sign that his heart is overexerting itself. He had an echo-cardiogram performed this afternoon and after the pediatric cardiologist reviewed it he realized the VSD (ventricular septal defect... or the hole between his bottom two chambers of his heart) was much larger then previously thought and would require surgery to fix.

Kyle will be put on an NG tube tonight. That is a soft flexible tube that will go up his nose and drip my milk directly to his stomach. That way he can get the calories without the excessive workout that nursing turns out to be. They want to put a little bit of weight on him before he has his surgery. We will be transfered tomorrow to Phoenix Children's Hospital where we will stay for probably a week before his Open Heart Surgery. After which he will require a 1 to 2 week recovery stay. Hopefully he will be home the beginning of June.

I will be updated our family blog regularly with updates on him as we receive them. www.kevinandheidiandfamily.blogspot.com. We would appreciate all of your prayers on his behalf. Nikolai made me cry when he came to visit this afternoon and told me he had fasted and prayed for Kyle today, all on his own. It was such a touching moment. If any of you would like to join him in this I know the heavens will be opened and our Kyle will be blessed.

Love Heidi