Friday nights are family night at the Wanninger house. Each child rotates their turn choosing our meal and maybe a special movie or game for the night. Some kids go all out with decorations and some just keep it simple. It was Fishers family night this past Friday night. His request was all bread! This boy has always loved bread. He will turn down dessert for bread! So when he requested spaghetti, and Italian bread with bread pudding for dinner, of course mommy obliged. I think the overload of bread got the best of more than a couple of us the next day, so when Fisher started complaining of a stomach ache, it was no surprise. And when he threw up, again no surprise. But after 24 hours of rest, plenty of water and normal bowels, he was still complaining of his stomach and really not wanting to do anything but lay around.
As parents I'm ashamed to say that a lot of times because we think we know our children so well, we tend to think the worst of them. I'm being totally honest when I say that Fisher has struggled with honesty on more than a few occasions. So Greg and I both began to wonder if he was "milking it". And when he perked up a bit Sunday night and ate some chicken soup, we thought he was done with the charade. But Monday morning as we were getting up and started for the busy day ahead, he was down again. Greg and I both asked him pointed questions, searching for answers, but all he would tell us was that his tummy hurt. When I asked him to point to where it hurt, he pointed to his belly button. But when he said he would rather stay home than go to co-op, I finally decided something MUST be wrong.
In July of last year, we brought Journey Mei home from China. I can't believe I've been so busy I haven't blogged about her at all. She is a joy! Such a blessing. It's been a whirlwind few months, as she had open heart surgery in November and then a set back in December sending us back to the hospital for a few days. After the last episode, we were sent home with an oximeter. It's a machine that reads oxygen levels and heart rates. It's very important that we keep a close eye on Journeys oxygen to monitor her heart condition, which is similar to Fishers. So once we started thinking something was up with Fisher Monday morning, we decided to hook him up to the oximeter and check his oxygen. Heaven forbid it was his heart and he was just having trouble describing his pain!
Well...when we hooked him up, good news, his oxygen was normal for him, 95. But his heart rate was 200!!! Yes, he had just walked up the stairs and yes, your heart rate goes up when you are in pain, so let him rest a minute and let's recheck. Here is Journey, let's go ahead and check hers too while we are at it. We can make sure the monitor is getting a good reading. We finished checking J and hooked Fisher back up. Heart rate 196!!! That's a problem. I called in to the cardiologist and waited for the nurse to call me back. In the meantime, Greg headed to our family doctor to try to walk in. Not too long after he left the nurse called me back and told me that if Fishers heart rate was 196, he needed to be taken to the ER ASAP.
So I called Greg and told him to reroute to Children's Hospital.
Fishers heart was out of rhythm. Come to find out, 50% of patients that have the surgery Fisher had three years ago, the Fontan procedure, have this complication. This was the FIRST we had heard of this! Anything, anything can cause it to happen...stress, illness, etc. And when your heart gets out of rhythm, do you happen to know HOW they have to get it back in rhythm?
THEY STOP YOUR HEART.
Greg called me, explaining what they planned to do. They planned to give Fisher a sedative, stop his heart, and restart it, hoping it would start back up on the right rhythm. WHAT?!?!? You see, I was at science and history co-op with the rest of the kids. Greg felt like it would be best for us to go ahead and keep our schedule for the day as much as we could, to help the other kids deal better with what was happening with Fisher. I was at our church, with my sweet friend, our pastors wife. When I got off the phone with Greg, she and I held hands with all the kids at co-op and we all lifted up Fisher in prayer to the Great Physician. We prayed that the LORD would intervene and would start his heart back in the right rhythm. This was a very risky procedure. Greg said the staff was ready standing by with the "shocking paddles".
In just minutes, it was over, and Fishers heart picked right back up on the right rhythm! Praise and thanks and honor and glory be to Jesus Christ our LORD! His heart rate went from 200 to 112 instantly and over the next few hours back to his normal resting rate (which is a little higher than most people's due to his heart condition). The doctors have decided to plan to send him home, adding a new medication to keep his resting heart rate a bit lower, hoping to alleviate this from happening as easily or as often. They will also send us home with a monitor that will send heart readings to the cardiologist as needed.
As I came in to the hospital this morning, I've reflected so much over the course of events that's transpired over the past 24 hours. The fact that the kids and I were at our church, with our dear friends, during all of this was absolutely an act of God. He knew ahead of time, what was going to happened with Fisher and He chose to place us in the loving arms of friends, not at home trying to deal with all of it and worrying ourselves sick. The kids at church were able to witness, first hand, the LORD answer their prayers for their friend, Fisher. What a blessing!
As I was walking down the hall to Fishers room, I ran into my favorite person at Children's. She is amazing. Whatever her job is, is the best job EVER. She makes sure that kids here in the hospital are kept happy and stocked with toys, and books and stuffed animals, and pretty much anything that could make such an awful experience better. I stopped to talk with her and she asked why we were back. As I began to tell her what happened, I realized that had we not had the oximeter, the machine that read his heart rate, the one we had ONLY because of Journey Mei, I don't know what would have happened. I mean, if we hadn't known that his heart rate was so high, we would NOT have called the cardiologist, we would NOT have taken him to the ER, we probably wouldn't have even taken him to the doctor, at least not for a day or so. I mean, he wasn't crying in pain, no fever, he was eating, he was just laying around complaining of a stomach ache!!!
Praise GOD, we had that machine. The LORD knew, from the beginning, that we would need that machine, but not for Journey Mei. He knew we would need that machine, for Fisher! I believe that the LORD spared Fishers life yesterday, and He used Journey Mei's oximeter to do it. So, Journey Mei didn't save Fisher...but the LORD did use her!
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