Jaybird and His Boken Heart

 

 I want to take a minute to talk about why I blog for the American Heart Association.  Maybe I can make it through this without crying.

Many of you already know that Jay and I have been close friends for nearing 10 years.  We dated for 4 of those years.  During that time, I went to most of Jay’s doctor’s appointments with him and got to know a lot about his heart and his general health.

You see, Jay was born univentricular.  The dividing wall between his ventricle was not there.  When he was 3, he had a Fontan procedure to allow him to live past 11 years old.  Less than 1% of all babies born with congenital heart disease are univentricular.  It’s incredibly rare.  Jay’s surgery was pretty new when he had it.

20 years later, Jay needed a new surgery.  We flew to Chicago to go to Children’s Memorial Hospital – the only place that performed the surgery that Jay needed.  Again, it was a new surgery.  Jay was the 99th person to ever have the surgery and most of the other patients had been small children.

It was a really rough few weeks for everyone.  We waited in the waiting room for 12 hours for Jay’s surgery to be done.  It was another 4 or so hours before we got to see him once he was out of surgery.  When we went into the room, he looked totally dead.  His body was blue, he was hooked up to all sorts of machines, and he wasn’t breathing on his own.  You can’t be prepared for that sort of thing.

I stayed with Jay in the hospital every day until he was released, only leaving his room for a few minutes at a time to get something to eat or go for a walk or shower.

Things started improving before we knew it.  We were moved out of ICU.  The tubes in his chest came out.  And suddenly, we were on our way home with Jay’s heart in great working order again (all things considered).

The American Heart Association saves lives every day by providing funds to research hospitals.  With these funds, hospitals can develop new surgeries – like the one Jay had.

Every single dollar helps, guys.  Even if all you have to give is $1, that’s okay!  If you can’t give today, that’s okay, too. You can make your pledge and fulfill it in a week, a month, whenever you can (preferably within the year).  Anything over $25 is tax deductible.  I will never see your money.  You’ll donate straight to the American Heart Association.

And, as an added bonus, for every $5 (or 500 pennies) you pledge, your name will be entered once in a raffle for a handmade charm bracelet (or something else for the guys.)

Here are some pics of the inside of Jay’s heart.  The white stuff is scar tissue from his last surgery.  The small pieces are pieces that they cut out to make his heart a little smaller.