When Ella was 4 months old, we discovered she had a heart murmur. We were referred to Primary Children's Hospital for an EKG, echocardiogram and chest x-ray. Soon we learned that she had VSD...ventricular septal defect which is a hole in your heart and is the most common type of congenital heart defect. Sometimes these holes will close on their own so the decision was made to take a wait and see approach. So every couple of months, we would take Ella to Primary Children's to see her cardiologist Susan Etheridge and to have an echo and chest x-ray. When she was about a year and a half, they decided she would need open heart surgery. We scheduled it for December 21...just a couple of days before winter break began so that I would only need to take a couple of days off and then we hoped that she would be healed pretty well after two weeks of winter break. We were told all the possible things that could go wrong (including that her heart may not restart and she could die) and we were told that it would likely take 4-7 days for her to be released from the hospital. Her surgery was on a Thursday and we were hopeful that maybe she would be home in time for Christmas on Monday.
Before she had the surgery, she was given two priesthood blessings. Her grandpa Bryan gave her one and blessed that her surgeons would be guided and blessed and that she would be completely healed. Her dad also gave her a blessing with help from Kyle Cannon in our ward. I was nervous even though I was sure all would go well. It's hard to send your baby in for major surgery.
As they performed the surgery, they closed the hole in her ventricle. They also found a second hole in her atrial valve (ASD) which was much smaller. They would not have done open heart surgery for such a small hole, but since they were already performing the surgery, they closed that hole as well. Interestingly, they used a little fabric patch to close the larger hole and stitches to close the smaller one.
She came out of surgery and she was put in ICU. We were able to go in and see her after awhile. She looked awful and I got very dizzy and had to sit down. I don't deal well with blood and such. And she cried and cried. Poor, sweet girl. The next morning, they changed her medication from morphine to tylenol or ibuprofen and almost right away she stopped crying and seemed much better. I've wondered if morphine doesn't work well on her or makes her feel yucky. Anyway, by that evening, she was sitting up and playing. They wanted her to move around so Alfredo took her for a wagon ride and soon she was running down the hall. Scary but good news. She was released from the hospital on Sunday and she was full of energy and I worried that she'd get hurt because she didn't seem to realize she had just undergone major surgery. She wanted to run and climb and play. We had to be careful not to let her climb or jump for about 6 weeks but her healing was pretty amazing.
While she was in the hospital, my parents came to Utah to take care of Michelle. People from our ward dropped off meals. They brought gifts for Michelle and Ella. We felt an outpouring of love from our ward family. The love I felt sustained me for months and even for a couple of years after that. If I felt lonely or sad, I would think back on how many people had reached out to us and I would know that we were loved and that there were many people we could turn to if we needed help.
LESSONS LEARNED: Prayers and priesthood blessings are powerful. God keeps His promises.
Healing can (sometimes) come much faster than expected.
Showing love through service can sustain people not only in the moment it is given but often in the days and weeks (and sometimes even years ahead.)
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