Through a hectic day at Sheba, I tried to sit by Mahdi’s mother while we waited for her son’s cath to end, with the intent to comfort her, but she seemed to need little comfort, and was even a source of joy and peace for me. She is a spirited and fun woman, and we spent time talking and joking away, showing me some videos of her son and her time at Shevet, and just in general passing the time.
Mahdi’s cath was to widen his pulmonary valve, which his condition, pulmonary stenosis, has made it too narrow for enough blood to be pumped through, and the valve is then to weak to pump all the blood out. After a while the doctors brought Mahdi back to the room and gave us the news. Mahdi’s cath went ok, nothing that really stood out. Doctors will see how he does over this next year, but they hope they will just have to give him the same cath to make the repair in about a year. However, if things do not go so well, they may need to do another cath sooner, or even a surgery. At this point, we can only wait and pray, but his mother was quite happy to see him, and he was mostly tired and in a daze from the drugs, as you can see in our picture, where his mother and I have big smiles of relief, he just looks tired and disinterested, which is understandable.
At the end of the day, we left the hospital with the hope that he might be discharged as soon as tomorrow, depending on how long it takes for his mom to learn how to administer his new medicine, but while the work of the doctors will end for some time, we will continue to struggle in prayer for Mahdi, that he can be healed and sustained by God in the coming year.