[From Guest Writer #2 in our annual summer series…]
It’s late July in 2023. Southern Indiana feels like a sweatshop in New York City at the turn of the 19th century. You can feel the intensity simmering just below the surface. Despite the heat and humidity, the possibilities and dreams of what could be becomes the driving force that pushes one golden-haired boy with the curly locks. He has just turned 16, and running has been a part of who he is since the day he was born. This boy, so full of determination and drive was walking by 9 months old and running by 91/2 months and 1 day. If he wasn’t going longer, harder, faster or higher, then he wanted no part of whatever “it” was. So, what happens when the very thing he loves to do is put on hold? Let’s start at the beginning….
It’s spring of 2023, and track season is in full swing. Cross country coach Barnett has come to his runners and asked them to help implement a new program for the future. Of course the boys were all in; they would do anything for Coach “Barney.” The new program allows Coach to monitor the runners’ heart rates during workouts as well as resting periods. Those resting rate periods threw a wrench into our well-oiled machine of faster, harder, stronger, and higher. Coach Barnett began to notice that his golden haired runner with the curly mop was tracking very unusual heart rate activity for a normal cross-country runner.
Coach then talked with multiple peers to find out if they had ever come across something of this nature. The answer was always the same: a solid “No!” followed by a solid “You need to have him get it checked out.” Ironically, when Coach finally approached us about the matter, it was the same week our boys were to see our pediatrician for our yearly well checks. This, of course, became another step in the journey we never anticipated.
At the pediatrician’s visit we shared with the doc what the cross country coach had found and his resulting concern. The pediatrician was very quick to get the orders for a heart monitor. Before the end of that week, Aden was fitted for a heart monitor that he would wear for 48 hours. Even with the heart monitor on, we truly figured things would come back easy breezy, Cover Girl beautiful. Less than 24 hours later, however, after turning in the monitor, we learned Aden had to stop running immediately; they were setting us up to see a pediatric cardiologist at Norton’s Children’s Hospital.
August came, and we are scheduled to meet with Dr. Roddy McDowell. On the day we met with Dr. McDowell, he performed an ultrasound of Aden’s heart and told us immediately what he believed. He told us there were three issues he saw, but the biggest issue was most troubling. He believed we were looking at an anomalous origin of the left coronary artery in the right coronary sinus. Our first thought: What did you just say? We would quickly learn what it was he just said and what exactly that meant.
Anomalous origin of the left coronary artery of the right coronary sinus would soon become a normal phrase that would roll right off our lips. Long story short, it is classified as a congenital heart defect. Aden was born with this issue. It wasn’t caused by anything that we did or did not do as his parents. There were other facts we learned along the way. For example, most infants born with this condition pass away before their first birthday. If the defect occurs on the right side of the heart, it does not pose as great a danger as on the left, like Aden’s was. For those who have the defect on the left, if undetected, they will have a 75% chance of passing away before the age of 35.
With surgery set for October 12th, we quickly learned just how precious our support system would become. They held a fundraiser to bring awareness to Aden’s condition, created a meaningful meal train, prayed countless prayers on our behalf, and checked on us consistently. We saw firsthand that people truly do have good hearts and really do want to help. We were also reminded that family comes in many forms. Family isn’t just those in your bloodline; family is those in your heartline as well. We learned that immediately through all the blood work, tests, and scans.
Surgery day arrived on October 12th. We were up and at the hospital by 5am, and by 6am sharp our boy was being wheeled to the operating room. There were so many emotions in those first moments as he disappeared behind the cold, metal doors. Through it all we knew that Jesus was in control and that not any of what was going on was taking Him by surprise. We just had to wait. And wait. Three hours in, Dr. Alsoufi’s nurse, Lisa, brought us the first update. She said that everything was moving along fine and that when the surgery was complete, Dr. Alsoufi himself would come to talk with us about how things went. The 5-6 hour mark came. Just as nurse Lisa said, Dr. Alsoufi came to meet with us. He told us that the surgery was complete and everything went smoothly. He also made a diagram for us to show what exactly he did to Aden’s heart. And in the words of my house-building husband, who looked at Dr. Alsoufi: “So basically you re-did the plumbing?” The theme throughout the discovery, tests, scans, and surgery always was this: “It’s amazing that there were no other symptoms.”
Here now almost 9 months out from open-heart surgery, while not everything has been sunshine and roses, there have been a few more lessons learned by this heart-warrior Momma. Allow me to share a few morsels of radical truth:
1. While the visible scar, as far as our eyes can see, is completely healed, there is a deeper healing that continues to take place. As Aden said to me once at around the 6-month mark, “Mom, I’m not the same person I was before my surgery.” On the outside he is still that golden-haired boy with the curly mop. Inside, there is clearly a deeper, stronger human growing… working his way to the top.
2. With every major event that has come into our lives, there is a three-fold healing that accompanies it. That healing is of body, mind, and soul. All of them happen. Maybe just not in our timing.
And the final lesson…
3. We have to have the scars in order to have the healing. We are always going to have scars that come whether they are physical or those deeper scars of the heart. True healing cannot come unless we are willing to acknowledge the pain and hurt that actually caused the scars. It is then and only then, that we receive beauty for the ashes and can rise up, far beyond the scar.
Hopefully….
LJ