Friday, December 19, 2008

Prayers Needed

Tonya had an ultrasound today, and all is not well with the baby (who appears to be a girl, by the way).

Shortly after we got home we got a call from the hospital, saying that they had detected some abnormalities. Specifically:
  • Instead of two lateral ventricles in the brain, they only detected one, and
  • They detected some abnormalities in the face (which I understand is common when there are problems in the brain), and
  • the baby's kidneys are abnormally large as well.
At this point we don't know more than this.

We are scheduled for another ultrasound, and more tests, at a larger medical facility in Sacramento on Monday. It's hoped that the doctors will be able to get a feel for the extent of the abnormalities and the baby's prognosis at that time.

So, as I mentioned in the title to this post, prayers are definitely needed. Tonya and I are still a little numb from the news.

4 comments:

B. Durbin said...

Prayers given.

Anonymous said...

You got it.

Anonymous said...

Prayers for all of you lifted...

Keep us posted.

Unknown said...

Dear Tim:

I don’t know how far back you read my late blog, so forgive me if I tell you something that you already know.

In September of 2004 we almost lost our then-four-month-old daughter due to a rare congenital heart defect that surfaced as it was slowly killing her. She experienced cardiac arrest, a stroke, and open heart surgery in three days that felt like 33 days. Big things, like the stroke, complicated her recovery and little things, like the cardiac arrest and stroke happening on our middle child’s 2nd birthday, scrambled our emotions. The last four years has been a non-stop effort at helping this girl recover from those extraordinary events. It has gotten progressively easier as time has passed, but we are not out of the woods. It appears that she will need a second heart surgery next summer to repair a problem with her original heart repair. Until then, we move forward doing everything we can to continue her recovery, to teach her and raise her and give her the best possible life that we can. We can do no less.

I will not insult you by telling you that everything will be alright. I will try to avoid all the annoying clichés that well-intentioned people share because they simply do not know what else to say, but feel compelled to say something.

I will share with you two things that I learned:

Laugh when you can, cry when you have to

Pray regularly, because God will get you through this no matter the outcome

You have a circle of family and friends to lean on for support. Use them. If there is anything that I can do for you, do not hesitate to ask. I cannot promise a “yes,” but I can sure try.

Richard “Arby” Barrette