Lucky

My friend Katie delivered her baby on St. Patrick's Day and found out about 24 hours later that he was having some health problems. I went to visit Katie and baby P today, only to walk away with one word stuck in my head-LUCKY. Lucky that baby P has made it this far, lucky that we live in a nation with such wonderful hospitals and doctors, lucky to have family and friends to lean on when times are hard, lucky to have such a beautiful and healthy baby of my own. We all pray that our children will stay safe and healthy and grow up to lead normal lives, yet we take it for granted when that actually happens. Katie feels lucky that her baby has a problem that is fixable, something that really hits home when you walk through the halls of a children's hospital and listen to the tears of others. As soon as I saw Charlotte again I gobbled her up with kisses, we are so lucky to have her. I was so inspired by what I witnessed today, we are SO LUCKY to have top notch medical treatment available to us! Both Scottish Rite and Egleston's accept clothing donations for children (it looked like one pieces and sleepers are best) and trial size toiletries for families who stay overnight, if you have anything spare to give I know first hand that there are families in need who would love to have whatever you can offer.
I put a short description that Katie emailed me below so you can follow what's happening, and I am blogging to ask for your prayers. Baby P will be having laparoscopic surgery on Monday to see if they can make any repairs and I can only imagine what it will feel like to wait on the results. Please pray that God will heal baby P and let him come home to the loving family that awaits him.

We were told on Friday that he has two holes in his heart, one between the top chambers and one between the bottom chambers, and these will eventually require surgery to correct but they will be managed with medication as long as his body can tolerate it so that he can grow and give them a bigger heart to eventually operate on. As for the diaphragmatic hernia after another set of tests they have determined that although on one side there is a hole that his liver has 'wedged' into it is also not a condition that will require immediate surgery. And on the other side there is not an actual hernia, but simply a 'weak spot' on the diaphragm that allowed the stomach to 'bulge' into but not actually penetrate through.
P's surgeon has decided he would like to get a 'first hand' view of the hernia in his diaphragm so they will be putting him under general anesthesia (to sleep) and making a small incision under his rib cage and inserting a camera to see what they can see. Apparently this laparoscopic surgery is the least invasive option, and the doc said that when they get in there IF they can make the repairs right then they will, or they may determine that he needs a more invasive surgery down the road, or that he doesn't require any surgery. I'm hoping it's either the first option (quick repair) or the last option (no repair needed), but regardless of the potential outcome if you could please send up a few prayers for him, his surgical team and maybe a little extra strength for me.