JD Update

First of all, we just wanted to thank you all for your support, prayers, and calls. And thank you also for the sweet cards and notes that have been sent. JD and I have been so overwhelmed with the love that has been sent our way.

So JD had an appointment at the Mayo clinic where he received another opinion from one of their cardiologists. He looked at all of JD's stuff and said that although they are not sure the hole caused the stroke, they can repair the hole without open heart surgery. It's a procedure called a PFO closure. It's a pretty simple procedure that takes a half hour and an overnight stay in the hospital. This was what we were hoping for. Unfortunately there are some insurance issues, but we will figure everything out.

We are moving toward doing the surgery- gathering all the information we can, finding the right doctors, etc.- and then once we have a clear picture we will decide to either do the surgery or do blood thinners. There is no research to show the best avenue, so we have some decisions to make. The scary thing is that the cardiologist said the size of JD's clot was this size: . Double the size and it would have been catastrophic. Talk about the Lord granting us every breath! It's amazing we all don't have strokes!

He also met with the OT and the PT this week. They both confirmed that coordination is JD's main problem. He can't tell where the affected body parts are in space. He will be sitting on the couch and all of the sudden he will feel something cold and look down to see that his foot had drifted and is touching the metal chair. Or one time he was holding the TV remote and all of the sudden the TV was at full volume. He couldn't tell that he was pushing down the volume button. But it's exciting to see that he is improving every day. The tingling and numbness is improving and I know he will get it all back.

We will just both be deaf from the TV blasting us out!