April 7, 2008, 6:50 PM: Jace's surgery outcome

Little Jace made it through surgery and is recovering in his little NICU room! I know this message is what many of you have been praying for and waiting to hear. Thank you for rejoicing with us.

“You are marvelous, God. You have shown us Your love through your Son Jesus Christ. You give us the gift of life, Father. You have revealed to us that through Christ we may have even greater Life. We thank you for that. Without You, we would be nothing at all.” This statement is a piece of a prayer for Jace by one of my dear students. I have heard numerous times this weekend from students, friends, and family members that we will never know the impact of little Jace’s life on their lives and others. He is a much loved little one. We are humbled by the many kindnesses to us, and by God’s continued mercy to allow us this time with Jace. Thank you, dear ones.

We left the hospital around 4:00 PM shortly after Jace was returned to his room, and his parents joined him at his bedside. We’ve not heard of further tidings since that time. But, to briefly document our day: We all arrived early. Jace was taken to surgery from his room already sedated and intubated (placed on a ventilator) around 8:30 this morning. His parents were peaceful but knew that the pictures they had taken of their little alert boy this morning might be the last of him alive. We all had to cry, but none of us doubted that this surgery was not in Our Lord’s will. We (both sets of grandparents, Madelyn, dear Judy Mixon, and for a brief precious time, our pastor from Christ Church PCA, Fred Greco) prayed, we waited and waited, we chatted; Lauren and Dan, understandably restless, but confident in the Lord’s good pleasure whatever it might be, checked out of the Ronald McDonald house, walked, prayed . . . . Around 1:30, the main surgeon of the first team of doctors found Lauren and Dan and excitedly reported that Jace responded well to the surgery. He was so sweet to hunt them down (for they were not in the waiting room) knowing very well the tenuousness of Jace’s condition!

Evidently, so related the surgeon, as surgery began, Jace’s vital statistics dropped indicating that his heart might not be able to take much surgery, but as soon as they severed the trachea-esophagus connection, remarkably, all of his stats returned to normal, thus the surgeons were able to connect his tiny esophagus and inserted TWO temporary feeding tubes, a gastric tube directly into his stomach and a nasal-gastric tube leading from the stomach, up the esophagus, and exiting the nose. Once he has healed, if his swallowing reflex works and he can take fluids normally, both tubes can be removed, but both must be surgically implanted. Yeah! The surgeons were able to do all they hoped to do! At approximately 1:30, the second team of doctors began to work on his bladder sphincter issue. During this rather simple procedure of opening a new ‘leak’ hole in his bladder, his stats began to fluctuate with his blood pressure dropping. They gave him a transfusion and ascertained that he does have two holes in his heart (I won’t bore you with technical terms AGAIN!); basically, he has an opening between the atriums in the top portion of the heart and an opening in the lower portion between the ventricles. But, in short (okay, this update isn’t that short, sorry), he came through the second procedure okay, not as strongly as the first, but he is with us still.

We are being told that he should come off of the ventilator in 3-4 days and will be assessed for progress next Monday. This Wednesday, they will be assessing his heart with at least an EKG and perhaps an echocardiogram.

God in His good pleasure has seen fit to bless us with more time with Jace. Grateful doesn’t even touch our emotions. We know Jace has a long road in recovering from just this surgery, and according to the world will never be ‘normal’ or live long, but it just doesn’t matter what the world thinks. This whole day, as we waited in relative peace for the outcome, we KNEW God’s will was being accomplished whether our little Jace lived longer here or died. Our other pastor at Christ Church, John Carroll, visited this afternoon and shared of our hope in Heaven. Never more has that hope of complete healing in Heaven been so powerful an image as we view this miraculous gift from God in little Jace. We all need that Healing Hand of our Heavenly Father, for we all are imperfect on this earth. As Francis Schaeffer’s reminds those of us who know the Savior, we can only live when we first reject our flawed self, then die to self, and are raised in Christ anew. Galatians 2:20 has always been one of my favorite verses; maybe I’m beginning to understand its meaning just a little. “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

We love and cherish you all. Thank you for your faithfulness in prayer for us.

Blessings,
Kathy for the Harts and Steinhauses.