The Heart of the Matter

Hey everyone! A beautiful weekend in Dallas after the rain was over. Patti and I attended church Sunday at Prestonwood Baptist again and then went to son Mike's in Fort Worth and enjoyed steaks with him, favorite daughter-in-law Morgan and favorite grandson Aidan. I also had the privilege of briefly being in West Monroe to take care of personal business on Friday and Saturday and got to see daughter Abbey, son-in-law Nick (He can't be my favorite cause we have two son-in-laws!) and favorite granddaughter Cadence. Four kids and both grandkids in one weekend...awesome!!!

Most of you remember that Patti was diagnosed with a hole in her heart called a Patent-Foramen-Ovale. Just to refresh, 100% of us are born with it, 60% close up right after birth, 20% close up by age 18 and the other 20% walk around with it for the rest of their lives and don't know they have it until something like this happens. The hole is between the two upper chambers of the heart and the speculation is that a clot or emboli gets into the right chamber, passes through to the left which pumps to the brain and, whammo, you have a stroke.

The closure is fairly simple involving a catheter into the leg and the insertion of a closure device in the heart. The procedure takes about 1 and 1/2 hours including recovery.

Patti will be transferred to a Dallas hospital on Thursday evening and the surgery will be performed early Friday morning. She will stay at the hospital for observation Friday night and check out on Saturday morning. As you know, the Super Bowl is Sunday and we wouldn't want her to miss that!!

This is a preventative measure as we still don't know what caused the stroke. It should be simple and risk free. The doctor performing the operation is very experienced and highly recommended. It is a big step towards getting her off of blood thinners and greatly reducing future stroke risk.

Prayer requests:

1. Pray for Holy Spirit guidance for the doctor and a normal procedure.
2. Pray for rapid and regular recovery for Patti so she can be back in therapy Monday morning.
3. Pray for peace for family members. We're all a little hospital shy at this point.

Praise:

Brother Tom is being discharged from the hospital today. His kidneys are up over 50% so he has been taken off of dialysis! He will have some diminished lung capacity and will be on blood thinners to protect against lung clots, but otherwise will be back to a "close to normal" life. God was gracious to him to pull him through what was a very difficult situation. Thank you for your prayers for him and his continued recovery and strengthening.

Forever in Him,

Mike