Monday, May 28, 2012

"Here's My Heart, O Take and Seal It"

Some of you already know this, but for those who don't, Jayne was born with a hole between the upper chambers of her heart...an atrial septal defect or ASD.  Over the last few years, the doctors have said there may be a chance that it would close on its own.  If it didn't by the time she was 4, they would have to do surgery.  They were pretty certain that if it didn't close, that they could do a procedure that would go through an artery in her leg and insert a device that would cover the hole...a very non-invasive procedure.  In January, we went in for our annual echocardiogram (basically an ultrasound of the heart).  They found that the hole was not going to close on it's own and that it was too big to do the aforementioned procedure.  They would now have to do open-heart surgery...cut her open, take a piece of her pericardium (lining of the heart) and patch the hole.  I kind of freaked out (not openly, but all the horrors of "what if" started going through my head).  That sounded like a giant deal.  Her cardiologist assured me that it is still a very low-risk surgery and she would be fine.  Over the past few months we have come to grips with it and now it is upon us.  She will go in this Thursday for the surgery.
At her echocardiogram the beginning of May

The toy she gets at the end always helps :)

There is a line in the song "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" that says 'Here's my heart o take and seal it'  We had gone to a seminary family night and a wife of one of the teachers sang that song.  I have always loved that song, but then Shane pointed out that line in the song.  Perfect for our little Jayne.  Often she will say, "My heart is broken" which is so sweet and, well, heartbreaking, but we have faith that it will be "sealed" and we put our utter faith in a loving Heavenly Father to be with her every step of the way, come what may.

Our friend Jon is an amazing graphic designer and made this for Jayne.  Jon, thank you so much!  Your are so talented and we love it!