I’m sorry. There’s so much I haven’t said– how my first baby turned five last week. How my husband is the best father ever. How my new anti-depressents are working out. I’m sorry. But I can’t talk about any of those things right now.
I need your prayers. Or, more specifically, a little girl in my family needs your prayers.
Jamie has had a pretty serious heart defect since birth. I don’t understand all of the technicalities of it, but due to the defect Jamie has always been small, has always lacked the boundless energy of her peers. Her cardiologist and parents have been monitoring the situation for eleven years, waiting until there was no choice but to attempt to repair the damage. Waiting for science to catch up to her heart defect– for the perfect repair to be developed.
At the last check-up, it was decided that there was no more time to wait.
Last Friday, Jamie had open heart surgery.
And at first, everything seemed to be going perfectly. Of course, six hours of bypass and breathing support take a toll on a girl, and she had a setback. Her blood pressure just wasn’t normalizing.
And since Saturday, she has been on life support, waiting for her heart to heal enough to do what it is supposed to do– to beat. All on its own. Hard enough to send her blood everywhere it needs to go. The plan has been to gradually turn down her ECMO machine until her own heart is doing all the work.
But every time they try to turn down the machine, her heart just isn’t up to the task.
No one knows why. There’s a good chance that with some more time to heal, Jamie’s heart will go back to kicking ass and taking names. And if it doesn’t, she is in excellent care with physicians and parents who will do everything in their power to heal her.
But Jamie needs all the prayers and thoughts we can give her. If you have a prayer chain, call it. If you have a candle, light it. If you have a spare moment, please give your thoughts to this beautiful, hilarious, wondrous little girl.









3 comments
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June 23, 2009 at 3:55 am
Rachael
I’m writing about Jamie on my blog, and I’ll send out the prayer chain to facebook too. I’m praying for her, and hoping her heart gets stronger.
June 23, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Abby
We’ll be praying for her.
June 25, 2009 at 1:21 am
A Heart. A Heart. My Kingdom for a Heart. « Growing A Pair
[...] 25, 2009 in Uncategorized Wanted to give you a Jamie update. I wish I had better news. But sadly, I do not. She’s not doing so well right now, and she [...]