A Broken Heart

"In all their distress, He too, was distressed and the Angel of His presence saved them; He lifted them up and carried them..." Isaiah 63:9



We have received so much information about Elysha's condition over the past few days that our heads are swimming.



On Monday we spent the day at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. We had a 2 hour ultrasound and did receive the good news while we were there that almost everything about her is normal.



Following the scan, the doctors consulted together, did another ultrasound then sat down with us. They gave us a preliminary diagnosis but defered to the paediatric cardiologist we were then booked to see at Sick Kids Hospital the next day (Tuesday). We were also refered to the High Risk Pregnancy clinic because in addition to the heart issue, there are issues with the uterine artery which is preventing enough nutrition and blood flow reaching the baby. It is not as much of a problem now as it will be during the third trimester when she needs to put on weight.



Tuesday: Sick Kids Hospital for a fetal echocardiogram. It's basically a specialized ultrasound. This one was also almost 2 hours in total, after a brief break while the cardiologist took a look at the slides. We then had to wait while the doctor reviewed the data and (unknown to us at the time) consulted with collegues.



We then had a 35 minute consult. It is actually worse than what we were initially told at Mount Sinai. Here is what we were told.



1) Dextrocardia-the apex (tip of the heart) is pointing to the right as well as the heart itself being over to the right. So the heart is reversed.



2)The pulmonary artery is narrowed and may continue to narrow



3)The right and left atriums (the top "filling" chambers) are in the correct place (for her reversed heart) but the left ventricle is on the right and the right ventricle is on the left (bottom "pumping" chambers). If you don't know anatomy, they do have different destinations (right to the lungs-lower capacity and left to the rest of the body-higher capacity) and need to be connected to the corresponding atriums so this is not a good situation.



4)She has a VSD-Ventricle Septal Defect. There is no division between the right and left ventricles so the oxygenated and deoxygenated blood is mixing, basically diluting the mix depleting the oxygen.



5)The pulmonary artery and aorta both feed into the right ventricle. The pressure is not enough to get the blood flow to the body and lungs in an adequate manner.



6)There is an unknown issue with a duct that because of the dextrocardia, they couldn't get a good picture of on the ultrasound. We'll find out about that after she's born.



7)One concern that may be showing up (they were seeing a drop in the baby's heart but could have been caused by other things) is that the electrical nodes that regulate beating and rythmn may lose the ability to communicate because of the VSD. If that happens, cardiac arrest and stroke are likely after birth.



What can they do?



Well, in addition to presenting us with the problems, we were given the surgical options. They all have very, very good success rates. They are, however, complicated by the dextrocardia and the unknown issues that come up.



The first surgery will be shortly after birth once she is stabalized. We will deliever at Mount Sinai Hospital and she'll be immediately transported to Sick Kids into the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Within 6 weeks they will put in a shunt into the pulmonary artery to expand it.



The next one will be between 6 and 12 months of age when she has gained weight and gotten stronger. The right and left ventricles will be seperated (baffle operation). The pulmonary artery will be sealed at the end and have a bypass conduit attached ending in the right ventricle. There will be "overpass" and "underpass" conduits to reconnect the other areas. The goal is restoring normal blood flow direction and pumping chambers.



Subsequent operations will be changing the conduits as she grows and there is a potential for the baffle to become obstructed so that will have to be redone. There may be a need for a pacemaker and a heart transplant if the blood flow does not normalize and/or the pulmoary artery continues to collapse.



We are looking potentially at spending the first year of life or more in hospital with frequent surgeries throughout childhood. We are encouraged though that this is considered to be moderate in terms of risk-they have seen worse cases. We have received excellent care at both hospitals and are so thankful to the Lord we are not in Brazil, or even Acton, as we are closer to Toronto and the GO line which has saved us driving into downtown Toronto. We are also thankful OHIP covers all of this. It's amazing to think that all these things were discovered on a heart that's the size of a peach pit!



We are still adjusting to the news-it may not really sink in until we see her in the NICU but in all this HE IS ABLE! Please pray as we seek His will for us in terms of ministry; we are now exposed to a whole new area that we never would have thought we would ever be a part of.

One last thought. We are fearfully and wonderfully made! Some have asked how Elysha could survive in the womb with such defects. During development, there are two conduits coming off the heart that attach to the umbillical cord. The heart is essentially bypassed until after birth when the cord is cut, then the conduits fall away and are absorbed. Evolution? Random chance? I don't think so!

"My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever." - Psalms 73:26

God's Grace is Enough

Richard and I were introduced to this ministry a few months ago. How amazing is our God!


http://



This clip shows how he goes about his day. Truly amazing!

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New Additions

We have two newcomers to our home...

Richard installed this himself - and did an excellent job. It works beautifully and I am so thankful for it!

And...

A 2000 Nissan Quest LXE. Lots of storage capacity, which was already put to very good use for our church picnic on the weekend. We're also looking forward to taking it up north next weekend to Camp ABK. It's a second vehicle (we haven't gotten rid of the Civic) so I can get to and from appointments and, Lord willing, come October get around with the baby.

What a Difference a Day Makes

The Lord revealed part of His plans for us on Wednesday.



We see His hand working in keeping us from going to Brazil and from moving to Acton.



A phone call from our doctor has put us further in to the unknown for the future, but thanks be to God who knows the future and holds all of us, including our daughter, in His hands.



In hindsight, we see now the reason for the length of time the doctor spent listening to our daughter's heart; why the technician doing the ultrasound on Tuesday called a second collegue in to confer; why we had to wait for a 1/2 hour afterwards before going home.



Our daughter has a rare genetic congential defect called "Dextro Cardia with situs solitus" - her heart is on the right side of her body instead of the left and the lobes of her lungs are reversed as well.



If the heart structure is normal, she will be completely healthy and only need a medic alert bracelet in case she ever needs CPR, defribillating, or a chest scan.



Some people with this condition have all their organs reversed and strangely enough, this is actually better because it means all the connections will be in the right place.



They did pick up some restricted blood flow on her scan so we need to go to Mount Sinai in Toronto for a fetal echo cardiogram to see what, if any, structural damage is present. With this condition, between 90 and 95% have additional heart defects. When all the organs are reveresed (situs inversus) the incidenct of heart defects is between 1 and 3%.



In all of this, the scripture reading from the Daily Light on Tuesday (see previous post) in more applicable now than ever.


"I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are Thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from Thee, when I was made in secret. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in Thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them."

It is wonderful to know that even now people around the globe are praying for our little girl. The fact that she does move so much is very encouraging. She's letting us now she's still here!

For those of you reading who know the Lord, we appreciate your prayers and will keep updates posted here as soon as we get them. At the moment we are waiting to hear when our appointment will be at Mount Sinai.

HE IS FAITHFUL!

Second Glimpse

Our "mid-pregnancy" ultrasound was today! I have been feeling a lot of movement over the last few weeks and today was no exception. The two technicians were refering to our little one as "jumping bean". I had to keep rolling from side to side to let the techs get the necessary shots and at one point they were going to have me lay on my stomach to try to get the baby to settle down. Hopefully, this level of activity will calm down a little after birth!



We had excellent views, and Richard got a wave a one point. While we don't have an 'official' report, we do know the baby has a 'beautiful spine' (you can see the outline of it on the scan below).



Because the baby would not keep still, we had to wait around afterwards to make sure the films came out clear and while we were waiting, Richard read today's "Daily Light" for us. If you don't know what Daily Light is, it is a daily devotional of various scripture passages on a single theme. We had two of the selections read at our wedding, for those who were there. I've pasted today's evening reading below. The Lord has truly blessed us today!

EVENING

JUNE 5

He knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.

The Lord God formed man
of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;
and man became a living soul.

I will praise thee; for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet
there was none of them.

Have we not all one father? Hath not one
God created us? — In him we live, and move, and have our being. — Like as a father pitieth his children, so the L ord pitieth them that fear him.

He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and
destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath. For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

PSA. 103:14. Gen. 2:7. Psa. 139:14-16. Mal. 2:10. ‑Acts 17:28. ‑Psa. 103:13. Psa. 78:38,39.

I Should Be Working...

...but I just got up from a much needed nap and am not quite ready to move yet. So instead, here are some shots of the trails around our home that we have been enjoying over the past weeks.

Brazil- Sao Paulo (fourth post)

Urban jungle...

Top and Bottom shots are views from Richard's office window.

The sqaure platforms on the top of the buildings are heli-pads. It's faster and safer to transport people from the airport via helicopter. Most offices have them.

More of Brazil (third post)

Cesar (Richard's Co-worker) with his girlfriend and assorted relatives. The woman in the white tshirt is his aunt.

Cesar's Dad built this bbq. Meat features heavily in the Brazilian diet.

Cesar's parents.

Front of the house-it's interesting to see the European influence in the houses.

The swimming hole. Also known as the cow pond.

More From Brazil

"Urban" Cowboy 8)

Well trained birds helping with the laundry!
This cow was so placid, they could actually sit on her.

It got quite cool at night as demonstrated by these birds huddling together for warmth.

Beautiful Brazil

One of the weekends that Richard was away, he visited the family farm of a coworker.

We'll start with the "wildlife". As this was a working dairy farm (milking done by hand!) there were plenty of cows around. This bull had his horns removed as a calf so he couldn't do much damage if he attacked.

At least the eyes aren't glowing red!

The matriarch of the family hand raised these birds, but felt badly keeping them caged. She released them but they returned to her. They sleep in a blanket lined box in her bedroom and hang around for treats as well (like the popcorn in the next picture)!

More pictures to come!

Update-finally!

I was just thinking how much better this blog is going to be once the baby comes-then we'll actually have some interesting things to post!

Although, the past few weeks have been very busy with illness, real estate deals and travel so I guess I do have some things to put up here. No pictures though, as our camera is taking a trip with Richard right now along with the memory card. But that also means we'll have some nice pictures to share soon.

Firstly, the condo. The house that we had an offer on in Acton was sold (to someone else) three days before our 60 day agreement. So we believe that is clear direction from the Lord to stay where we are for now. It will be a little more cramped but our 715 sq.ft. is luxury compared to the living conditions of some so we have nothing to complain about. It's interesting, looking at the list of things we had to get for the baby when we thought we'd be moving to a three bedroom, two storey house and realizing how few of those things we actually need (or have room for!). Basically, we need a bed and a carseat. Refering, of course, to "furniture". Clothes and diapers aren't counted here. :)

Secondly, Richard and I were both sick for a couple weeks; Richard even took a week off work! It was pretty bad but thankfully, he got better before he had to leave for Brazil.

Which leads me to the third update: Richard is in Brazil for two weeks. He left Sunday and will be back next Saturday morning. Even though it's going into their colder season, it was 31degrees when he got there and sunny. He called me from the hotel pool :(

So I've been keeping busy while he's away with various activities. Including buying maternity clothes which was a great experience! There was was a big sale on at one of the specialty clothing stores so I went in and had a nice chat with the saleswoman there who explained to me the ins and outs of maternity wear.

Anyway, tonight is our International Dinner at Hopedale. Richard and I were supposed to sing the Zambian national anthem and a hymn in Lunda, but I don't know the anthem well enough to sing by myself and I couldn't find the hymnbook until late last night so I'm not ready. If I get called up anyway, I may just sign a hymn instead. That's foreign language to most people I think!

Our First Glimpse

We were finally able to get a look at our little one! After two very upsetting appointments at one ultrasound clinic we switched to another one and are determined to go back there if we need another scan. They were wonderful!

Condo for Sale!

We are praying about moving in the very near future so we have put up the condo for sale.

Here's a link to the pictures of the place. If you've been to our place before, I'm sure you'll see a bit of a difference in the den! :)

If you or someone you know is looking to buy, details are available at
www.rnbrooks.com

Condo for Sale

Wedding Photos

My first attempt at using Picasa! These are pictures taken by family and friends.

Our Wedding Pictures

Hatch Dinner

Some pictures from Richard's work party at the Westin Harbour Castle on Queens Quay (pronounced 'key' not 'kway') :)

It was a small, intimate affair with over 1300 people in attendance. Fortunately, the room was large enough to hold us all with lots of room to spare.

The hotel offered a special room rate for those at the party which we took. It was nice, escpecially for Richard, not to have to drive back late at night and in the freezing cold!

The views from our "panoramic" room. Rogers Centre above and the harbour/Toronto Island below. We were on the 32nd of 34 floors.

The live jazz band that played throughout the night

Wedding Pics

We've received our proof book from our wonderful photographer, Peggy Baker, so we're looking forward to getting our thank you cards printed out as well as our wedding albums put together.





In the meantime, we really appreciate our friends and family sending us their pictures as well.





Here is one from our friends the Ghezzi's. (Hanniel was Richard's best man)

This was the best idea while we were down there-1/2 braiding kept my hair out of my face.

Cuba Scenery

Beachfront wedding
Another view from our villa, looking towards the hotel

One of the resort gardens

Cuba Pictures

Breakfast outdoors by one of the pools on our first day
The view from our villa in the morning...
...and at night! The balcony was completely private and we were the only ones on our floor (top)
Just down from our resort was where Christopher Columbus landed in 1492.
A sampling of the fresh fruits available everyday. The curls hanging down are orange peels.

Long Overdue

Where to begin? The last two months since we last posted an entry here have just flown by! It's hard to believe that the wedding is all over and all we have to do now is enjoy married life.

I'm going to skip Christmas and the wedding shots here as my sister-in-law has amazing pictures and a detailed description of the wedding for those of you who couldn't attend. Go to her site at www.theafricanqueen.blogspot.com . You'll have to go to "older posts" at the bottom of the screen but it's pretty clear as to which one to click on.

I will say that God is Great! We had an amazing day and were both able to enjoy the event. It was everything we prayed it would be.

I'm having trouble uploading the pictures right now, so here is a brief synopsis of the time away.

Sunday afternoon we went to Niagara Falls for two nights. We practically had the whole falls to ourselves. It was sunny and warm enough to walk for four hours as we did (twice actually!)
Tuesday afternoon we flew to Cuba for a wonderful sun filled, warm week of relaxation.

We arrived back in Toronto the following Wednesday at 1:00am to dark, cold, snowy weather. After scraping the car off we heading home and finally got into bed at 3am. The rest of the week has been sorting, packing, unpacking, cleaning and trying to get in touch with friends and family.

Richard headed back to work today and I'm settling in to my new role at home. So far, so good!

Hopefully, we'll have to pictures up soon so keep checking in!