Another Cath Behind Us

January 23, 2010 we are currently at Jim’s parent’s house. We went Thursday to Birmingham, AL to get ready for the heart catch on Friday. We were met in Birmingham by our good friends Gage & Kelly Coldwater (and children) and Kay & Michael Hillman. (Gage and Kelly are friends from MSOP and Kay is a former co-worker and good friend of mine from Philadelphia). You got to love friends who are willing to drive 10 and 4 hours one way just to be there and support you. We were also visited by Tim Hayes (MSOP grad and preacher friend), Jeff Clark (the preacher at Jim’s home congregation), Jim’s parents, my mother and twin sister.

Jim's catch went off without a hitch. He was in surgery for about 2 1/2 hours and the doctors were not surprised by what they saw. They were going to look again at the possibility of ballooning or stinting. They made the decision early on that this was not feasible. His narrow places were about the same and little was found in those areas that could be blamed for this increased symptoms. They did find that his heart muscle was significantly weaker. Most of the meds he is on was hoped to improve strength and function, this has not happened. Although this was to be expected they were not happy with these findings. The way they put it is "his heart does not even function well enough when he is as rest." They are amazed that he is able to do all that he does. The way we see it is that they only see the man and not the motivation (God). With His strength and blessing Jim lives on. We are going on Monday to see the heart failure/ transplant group again. Since this is the only option we have left they will help give advice on our next move. Please continue to keep us in your prayers and thanks for all of your encouragement.