Update #3, 28th July 08

Hi everyone, here is the update thus far...

We are at Starship Hospital in Auckland now and have been here since the 25th. They sent him up here because after a day of having his breathing tube out he was having a bit of trouble breathing... Its wasnt that he couldnt breath, it was just that it was hard for him because of the little stents up his nose, when they got a bit of snot in them it made it hard for him to breath and they were worried that it may be putting to much strain on his heart... So we got up here and the have found a number of interesting additions to the whole drama to date... What they thought he had at Waikato it turns out he doesnt actually have that particular contion, he has one that is simillar but different... It is called a Trelodgy of Fellot. It means that he has a hole between the bottom two chambers of his heart and the artery which is taking the blood out of the heart is slightly congested. Plus the ductus which is above his heart that is ment to shut at birth is still open. So that leaves us with the following problem:

When the blood pumps through the heart it is leaving through the normal process but because of the hole alot of the blood is leaving through the artery which leads to the lungs. There are two arteries leaving the heart, one that takes blood to the lungs and one that takes blood to the body. So with that hole in the bottom of his heart alot of blood is leaving to the lungs. Also the ductus that hasnt shut is between these two arteries leaving his heart and what it is doing at the moment is also taking some of the blood out of the artery leading to the body and putting it into the one going to the lungs... So what can happen is to much blood can go to his lungs and make it hard for him to breath. And his body will be asking for more blood to be pumped to it so his heart will get the signal to pump harder and then the blood instead of getting sent to the body get redirrected to the lungs and so on... So its a bit of a nasty cycle BUT he is doing really good at the moment and they are about to take him in for an oppereation today at 2pm to shut that ductus so less blood will be channeled to the heart.

They will monitor him after today to see hwo he gets on because if possible they dont want to opperate on the hole untill he is about 6 months old, just so that the heart is a bit bigger... But by then with the amount of prayer happening for him he should be well and truely healed!

So that is the latest so please praye that today goes well and that his recovery from it is quick and smooth and problem free....

Thanks again,

Josh & Ambz