And waiting..........

Today, Sept 6th, I called St. Boniface Hospital cardiac sciences. Quite honestly
the wait has grown. There are always more urgent/emergency cases and people awaiting surgery. St. Boniface Hospital services all of Manitoba and Northwest Ontario for cardiac surgery and they have limitations.
    The nurse anticipated that surgery won't be until November 2013. Granted, Jeff is not experiencing symptons, and others are. I guess we should be happy that he is doing well.
Others have aneurysms that are twice the size of Jeff's. It's just that "aneurysm" is a scary word; it used to mean that the person had died from it; past tense  Now with the more accurate testing, they can determine the size of it. Some people did not know that they had an aneurysm until being checked for something else and then it is found accidentally.  
   We were told it would be a good idea if people wrote to their MLA or the Minister of Health to remind them of the long wait times for these services. Long wait times cause families and patients added stress. Politician's don't consider fixing things about complaints until election time when they are trying to sway the voters.
Anyway, that is my soap box speech for today. I guess we "should not be worried about tomorrow because tomorrow has enough of it's own worries." God is sovereign, He IS IN CONTROL , and He knows what He is doing!! TTFN (ta ta for now).  Have a good weekend everyone. Love, Dorothy

Still waiting

Well, many people have been asking about "when is Jeffery's surgery?"
That's the question all of us are asking. Today (Aug 15, 2013) I called St Boniface
Hospital. I just heard back from them. The nurse has no idea when this might happen.
Beds have been closed over the summer due to staff vacations etc.  She said Dr. Moon
has a lot of people waiting for surgery. They need to find enough operating room time to
do Jeffery's procedure because it takes 4-5 hours to complete. She said she "doesn't have the OR schedule for September"  So I am guessing that this isn't going to happen this month.
Luckily, Jeff has not been experiencing any chest pains or other symptons up to now.
In fact, today he has gone golfing with his cousin, David. There is a group of groomsmen
and friends from David and Amie's wedding party golfing 18 holes,(bachelor party), then having a BBQ.
Ian is one of the groomsmen in the party.
Maybe we started this blog too ooooooo early.  Once we have a date it will go out on the blog.  Hope everyone is enjoying the summer. Dorothy

Off to SERVE

Saturday, July 20, 2013

  Jeffery has been involved in Hope Centre Ministries for a couple of years now. During the

Winter months, he attends a friendship group consisting of bible study, worship, social time etc.

He has met some amazing friends!

 Hope ministry’s mission statement says:                                    

                       " Hope Centre exists to provide holistic,      

                                     person centred supports to people

                                    with intellectual disabilities and to promote

                                     inclusive communities."

                         “We all have gifts, there different."                                                                                

Hope ministries also holds  a summer mission opportunity called SERVE. Jeff was a part of this

Ministry last summer and he is going again.  SERVE 2013 begins TODAY! He has waited since

    Registering back in March.  His bags are packed, he has his bed roll, pillow,etc, and he is ready.

The participants meet at Covenant  Christian Reform church in Winnipeg. This will be their home base for the week. They will sleep there, take their meals, do activities, worship, have small group time, go to work sites each morning to help the community,

                                                          and also have time in the afternoons  for FUN.

The theme for SERVE this year is:

                        “JUST BE.. In Christ, Holy, Free, Transformed, Surrendered, Bold.”

Each evening in worship they will explore these concepts. 

 Each participant has their own mentor for the week, who will pray with them, guide the

 small group time and generally be their go-to person.

  

Jeffery and his friend, Donovan who is also going to SERVE where commissioned at our church last Sunday.  They also took time to pray for Jeff about his upcoming surgery. 

That was an awesome time.

SERVE finishes Thursday, July25th. Thanks for keeping the SERVE group in your prayers and for checking the blog.

JEFFERY’S      JOURNEY   2013

This blog has been created so that family and friends can follow our

“Journey with Jeffery “

as he anticipates open heart surgery.

Thursday, July 18, 2013.

Jeffery has a dilated ascending aortic aneurism that requires a repair/replacement. The medical procedure is called: Aortic root replacement, mechanical valve, ascending aortic and hemi arch replacement, circulatory arrest.

That is a mouth full.

We do not have a date for the surgery yet

He has had all the necessary tests and a three hour pre-op visit and now we wait, wait, wait.

 For a surgery date.

In the meantime, we are asking for prayer to be able to cope with the wait and what lies ahead. We  have faith in God and we know that the bible assures us in,

Jeremiah 29:11 “ For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Let me give you some history: Jeffery was born 7 weeks premature. He had a number of health issues, one of them being a defective heart valve. The doctors have monitored this every year by ordering a echocardiogram of his heart. The heart valve has always grown with him and has caused no effects or symptons until October 2012 when the echocardiogram  was picking up changes. We were sent to a Cardiac surgeon in January 2013. He ordered some more definitive testing and we went back to see the surgeon June 26, 2013. He explained what he was seeing from the tests and what surgery he was recommending. Jeff had his pre-op evaluation on July15. The surgeon had stated that the surgery would be about 6-8 weeks from June 26^th. That makes it somewhere in the last 2 week of August.

Jeffery would like this blog to be a way that others can encourage him through this journey, keep him in prayer and of course to keep family and friends updated of his progress. The blog may only last for 3 months; that is the time of anticipated recovery time. Who knows? Maybe it will be longer.

Thank you for checking the blog  regularily. Dorothy