Update on Ethan

Wow. What a long past few days this has been. Thank you so much for the hundreds (and I mean hundreds) of calls, e-mails, messages, etc. I wish we could respond to all of you, but it seems like there's just not enough time in the day to maintain any normal sense of living right now. Please know that we love hearing from you, and knowing that so many prayers are being sent up on behalf of our little boy is SO encouraging.

Here is what we know about Ethan so far (the kinda short story):
-ultrasounds performed on his spine, head/brain, abdomen, and kidneys have all come back NORMAL. This means all other major organs are functioning the way they should be!

-his heart condition is called Pulmonary Atresia with VSD (on the spectrum of Tetraology of Fallot). This basically means he has no pulmonary artery and there is a hole between his right and left ventricle. I've become an expert on the heart in the past couple of days and could go into much more detail, but that's the basis of his condition.
-the geneticist is sending off 3 different tests: 1) a  chromosome karaotype, 2) a more detailed testing of his chromosomes that would show any deletions, and 3) a test for a specific mutation called TBX-5. The genetic disorder the geneticist is suspecting is something called Holt-Oram, but again, only the results of the blood tests will tell us for sure. The first two tests are being read locally, but his blood for the 3rd test is being sent to Houston, TX. We should know the results of all these tests in the next 3-4 weeks.

We found out today that Ethan's surgery will be TOMORROW, March 11 at 8:30 in the morning. They expect it to last about 4 1/2 hours, as they have decided to do a complete repair. This means they will fix his heart so that it functions normally, it's just going to look a little different. He will need multiple surgeries to maintain tomorrow's surgery, but they don't anticipate another one for the next 3-4 years.

I know many of you would like even more details, and I really hope we can provide those for you at some point in the future. Right now, we just wanted to make sure everyone knows the basics of what's going on with our son.

Here are some of our immediate prayer requests:
-that Ethan remains stable through the night so that his surgery can go on as scheduled tomorrow.
-for the surgeons, and entire team of people, who will be operating on our little boy.
-that Jeramie and I will find time to rest tonight, as tomorrow is going to be a very long day.

We'll be sure to update after his surgery. I can already anticipate the thousands of prayers that will be lifted up tomorrow morning. Jeramie and I thank you in advance for that, and for all the prayers we've felt thus far.

We love you and appreciate you more than we can say.