Aaron's Mom

As many (but not all!) of you are aware, Aaron's mom, Jackie, has had problems with her heart the last several years. She had a pacemaker placed a few years ago which has been a great help in keeping her heart beating (these are things we like). However, the strength of her heart has continued to deteriorate, and she is now at the point where she is needing a heart transplant (don't like this so much). The last couple months have been very difficult as her dad, Aaron’s grandpa, died last month (I have been bugging Aaron to write a post about his grandpa to share with you what an amazing man he was and the impact he had on Aaron’s life. Somehow, he hasn’t had the time to sit down and do that yet :-). Maybe someday still... )

In the midst of this, Aaron’s mom was meeting with the cardiologist and having continued tests of heart function. Soon after the memorial, she returned to their office to learn that she needed to get connected with the transplant program and go to Spokane for further testing and to officially begin the process. She also would need to have a pump implanted to keep her blood circulating while she waited for a transplant (her heart is pumping less than a quarter of the normal volume on its own).

Aaron’s parents headed over to Spokane last week to meet with the doctors there, and they promptly admitted his mom to the hospital. Things are moving along and she is scheduled for surgery tomorrow (Thursday) for placement of the LVAD ("left ventricular assist device"). She is being moved to the ICU today to get prepped for tomorrow’s surgery. Tomorrow morning, they will install the pump.

Aaron’s sister, Jody, has set up a Caring Bridge site for mom to keep people updated on what’s happening. You can visit the site here. I also added a button to our blog side bar that will take you to her site.

Aaron just left for Spokane about 5 minutes ago and will be there through the surgery tomorrow. As I hear from him, I will update our blog with any information.

While this is certainly an emotional, challenging, scary and "unknown" time, the family has been so encouraged by the love, encouragement, support and offers of help from friends and "friends-to-be." Aaron and his Dad will be staying tonight with some of those new friends that have offered their 2 bedroom basement apartment to a family they don't even know. Thank you!

We really appreciate your prayers and support- check back for more updates as I hear them from Aaron!