Pray for Wesley

No time for a post, but here's an email I sent out tonight.

Hi, Friends!

First let me thank you all so very much for all the love, support, and especially the prayers. Please forgive me that I have failed to return so many phone calls and text messages today. Today was simply crazy!!

Several of you have questions about what exactly has occurred so far and what exactly is happening next. So here's the scoop:

Tuesday morning Wesley woke around 6 AM and immediately noticed that he was feeling really bad and that he had a very rapid heartrate. About 6 years ago he experienced some similar symptoms that only occurred a couple of times and didn't last very long. At that time he consulted with his general practitioner and had some test run but could find nothing wrong. So on Tuesday, he thought he was probably experiencing the same thing and that it would pass. He tried getting up, moving around, and taking a shower, but continued to feel bad with a rapid heartrate. After a while he also started to feel dizzy, faint, and a slight tightness in the chest. At this point, he asked me to drive him to the hospital. In minutes we were ready to walk out the door, children in tow, but he was getting worse and feared passing out in route. So, he asked me to call 911. The EMTs arrived in just a few minutes and documented his heartrate at about 280 BPM. We all recognized this as very serious and he was transported to the hospital by ambulance. Almost immediately the ER doctors suspected he had Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome also known as WPW (basically an extra electrical pathway in his heart that he was born with).

Many people live with this, and often it's treated with medication. After a period of about 2 1/2 hours from the onset and just minutes before giving him meds to bring down the heartrate, his heart converted on it's on back into a normal rhythm. Honestly the fact that it lasted that long was a blessing, because sometimes this can be difficult to diagnose unless the patient is actually experiencing symptoms. The ER doctors requested a consult with a cardiologist to confirm the diagnosis. Two different cardiologist both saw Wesley, reviewed his information, and agreed that he did have WPW. They also conclude that because of the severity of his episode and the extremely high heartrate, he had an extreme case and should undergo a procedure called an ablation as soon as possible to eliminated the extra pathway. Because of the severity of this episode, Wesley falls into a category of people who could experience cardiac arrest if left untreated.

His procedure was tacked on to the end of the schedule today. It was suppose to take place around 3 PM or so this afternoon. God intervened and an opening occurred today allowing him to have the ablation at around 8:00 AM instead. That was another blessing.

The ablation consisted of a line being run from a vein in Wesley's leg to his heart. The plan was to catherterized the extra pathway. Wesley was heavily sedated, didn't feel anything, and doesn't really remember anything, but was not put completely under. He did well during the procedure. However even though this procedure has a very high rate of success (estimated between 90-98% success rate) for curing and eliminating the problem, the cardiologist was unsuccessful in eliminating the extra pathway due to the fact that it was in a difficult and unusual location. Because of that, he is being referred to UAB for a second procedure tomorrow morning. We still don't have an exact time, and won't know for sure until early in the morning.

The plan for tomorrow is much like today except they are going through a vein in his chest and going through a different location around his heart. There's been a little confusion so to clarify, let me say this is not open heart surgery and his chest will not be opened up. They expect this to be successful and do not expect complications. My understanding is that this is a more invasion procedure, but the risk are still considered very low. They also expect a quick recovery. If this procedure is successful, he will be complete cured, won't have to take meds for it, and will not experience any other problems related to this.

Wesley has much greater knowledge and understanding of all the medical terminology and can explain all this in much greater detail than I can. Hopefully I'm reporting everything accurately. This is simple my understanding.

So how is he right now? Wesley has had a very difficult time today waiting up from all the meds used to sedate him. He's struggled with a lot of nausea and low blood pressure. This procedure required him to lay complete flat for what ended up being about 12 hours today, because of this he's stiff and pretty uncomfortable. He's currently able to get out of bed, but still too sick to physically do so. He also has some pain from the site in his leg where they ran the line.

Finally, here's a few specific prayer request:

1. that Wesley will do better with the meds they use to sedate him tomorrow, that he won't feel so badly, won't have so much nausea, and will not have low blood pressure issues tomorrow

2. that his body would physically recover quickly, that the discomfort he's feeling will pass quickly, that the entry sites will heal quickly

3. most importantly that this procedure will be a quick, easy, and completely successful, and that he will will be completely recovered and able to return to regular activities as soon as possible

4. pray also for the Brock family who has had our children since early Tuesday morning. Pray for strength and endurance especially for Heather as she cares for 6 children!!

5. pray for the kids to process this all well and not be scared, worried, or concerned. They visited Wesley at the hospital tonight, and they were really missing us.

6. finally pray for baby Elizabeth who is due in 3 weeks to stay put until we can take care of her Daddy!

Thanks you again for everything! Thanks for the many offers to help!! Right now there's nothing we need other than prayers. If you really want to do something, please be sure to check in on the Brocks and make sure that they are covered and that our children haven't consumed all their food!! Heather will be bringing the kids to 4th Friday tomorrow. If you are there, please give her a hand. In the event we are not home by Sunday, they may also need relief or help with church on Sunday! Thank you all again!! We are reminded once again what a huge blessing it is to be part of the body of Christ!! We love you all so much!!

I will send updates as I can!

Love,
Jennifer