Mekdes rocking out at a Stephen Curtis Chapman concert.
On December 2nd, my five-year-old daughter Mekdes is having open heart surgery.
It hasn't really sunken in yet. I do know I'm not looking forward to it. But I'll be glad to get it done.
The cardiologist said we could have until summertime, but it's just too hard to wait that long with something so huge hanging over our heads. Plus, we've already hit our max for the year with insurance (funny how two heart surgeries will do that for you) so from a financial perspective, it makes sense to have it done now.
The surgery itself is four hours long, and we're looking at a 7-10 day hospital stay, provided there are no complications. That's going to be a lot of juggling for us, but we'll make it work.
Without this particular surgery, my daughter would have a very short life. She's extremely blessed as it is that she has not incurred any serious heart damage yet, and that would eventually change. Scary stuff. So we're of course really hoping that the surgeon is successful in fixing her defect, since it's a pretty big deal.
I've been thinking a lot about Mekdes' birth mom and how, when we met her, she was adamant about two things:
She wanted to know if we were Christians, and wept with relief when we said yes, and
She wanted her daughter to get the medical help she needed so that she could live a good life.
This woman of course had no clue that her daughter really was looking at a greatly-shortened lifespan due to the heart defect she was living with. Oh how I wish I was able to tell her about Mekdes' surgeries and about how we're taking care of her. I wish I could tell her about how our priest prayed over Mekdes and about how all of our friends have supported us with prayers, meals, and love.
Mekdes' pre-op is on Thursday, December 1st, and then she'll be admitted the next day for surgery. And in the meantime it's homeschooling and Thanksgiving and houseguests and putting up the Christmas tree and Anna's dance performance. Life marching on. Even amidst open heart surgery.
