Our Christmas Miracle

Bodie was discharged this evening! What a beautiful early Christmas gift! 

We didn't tell Sierra Bodie was getting discharged until she showed up at the hospital and saw us standing out front. She jumped out of the car and ran to him and he flew into her arms. There was a group of women standing behind us and they all started crying. It really was perfect.

Truthfully, we hesitate to use the word miracle, because we don't know yet what all this means. Bodie's labs this morning showed a significantly improved BNP (measure of heart failure). To put it in perspective, the week before his cath, it was over 900 - and this morning, it was 369!!! We still want it to continue to lower, but this was a significant movement in the right direction. However, his echo doesn't show much improvement. We are very, very hopeful that we will see improvement as time goes by, but we do not have a guarantee on that. 

Bodie looks good, the be sure. Actually, he looks fantastic. The most energy and highest oxygen saturations we have seen since before he went into heart failure. He has been squealing and chattering nonstop with Sierra in the backseat as we drive home. Clearly, the changes we made this week have been good for his body. But whether those changes will help us avoid transplant for now is anyone's guess. We covet your prayers for his function to continue to improve.

He continues to have a higher heart rate than we would like, but because he is stable and otherwise looks so good, the team felt it was safe to manage the rhythm issues on an outpatient basis. Please pray that, as his heart heals, his rhythm issues will lessen as well.

Tonight, as we find ourselves 5 days from Christmas, we are overwhelmed with gratitude to have our little family back together and home. We are so grateful to celebrate our Savior's birth together. 

We don't know if our son is getting the Christmas "miracle" we prayed specifically for, but he did indeed see miracles happen this week. He had a cardiac catheterization that showed his Fontan conduit to be working well. He had a single solitary seizure that left behind no neurological deficits and instead lit a clear path for us going forward.  And he sits with us now, looking better than he has in over a month. However, you define "miracle," we have indeed witnessed them this week.

We thank you for your love and support during an extrordinarily difficult week. Please continue to pray for Bodie and our family as we enter this new season of uncertainty, watching and waiting to see whether his heart function will rebound. 

Uncertainty is not easy for anyone, and we are so grateful during this Advent season for the constant reminders of the certainty our Savior provides. 

Merry Christmas from the Bennetts.