All photos, wav files, and plaintext copy courtesy of Mikey's Dad.
Thanks, Rick!! ~smile~

January 4th, 2004... Celebrating the new year! In today's picture, Mikey and family are enjoying our "good luck" meal.. ham steaks, cabbage, beans and cornbread. While our "northernish" relatives were not familiar with this southern tradition, they DID enjoy the home cooked meal. The food was good (we all had seconds) and the weather was great.. mid 70s, so we all got together and barbecued the next day! God has been good to us this last year, and we're looking forward to a great 2004 with Mikey, and we wish everyone a safe, healthy, and joyful new year. God is good!

January 11th, 2004... There's a new addition in our family. We wanted a grandchild.. we got a hound dog. "Maxwell", a beagle/boxer mix, is Sissy and Mister Ed's new dog. He's just a friendly ol' house dog, but Mikey loves him. Mister Ed has the pickup and the hound dog... now all he needs is a gun rack and a rebel flag and he'll be a full-fledged southerner.

January 18th, 2004... Mikey & Dad are pictured today. I get a lot of email wondering why dad is never in any of our pictures. It's because dad is always TAKING the pictures... but today, at great risk to the camera, I laid it down on the table and got in the picture. By the way, I came by those gray hairs honest. I earned every one of 'em!

T.G.I.S. Thank God It's Sunday! We love sundays.. We get to go to church. And tonight, The Nelons, a southern gospel group, is giving a free concert at our church. God is good!

January 25th, 2004... Mikey had another awards ceremony at school this week. In today's picture, you can see him on the stage, holding up his honor roll ribbon and academic achievement awards. He's doing well right now. We had some rain last night, but it's been warm... the forecast is for 65° and sun today... should be a sunny SONday.

Mikey is doing pretty well. He had his pacemaker checked last week and it looks alright. Little Rock is scheduling us in April to discuss his next open-heart surgery.. perhaps yet this spring.

***** IMPORTANT NOTE: *****

We returned from our last trip to Little Rock with bad news. We thought that this summer's stent placement had "bought" us a year or two, but the stent to open Mikey's homograft has failed, causing the homograft to fail.

Heart echoes were done to confirm what the xrays show. The stent is crimped and the wire mesh is broken, letting the already calcified and obstructed homograft collapse further.

It is not possible to remove or replace the stent. They think the only option is another open-heart surgery to start all over.

The cardiologist seemed surprised that Mikey is not showing any symptoms, but he was emphatic that Mikey has a very sick heart. I asked, if surgery is imperative, could it wait 6 or 7 months until the end of this school year, and the doctor said he could not say at this time. He sent us home and said that he would confer with other cardiologists and heart surgeons for their opinions.

He explained that, as of now, the only option is to open the chest, (disconnect, and) stop the heart, and place Mikey on a heart-lung machine until large gortex "piping" could be installed. The stopped heart would be kept "alive" by continuously circulating a special cold fluid through it. The old calcified and brittle homograft with the broken stent would be removed, and the new gortex pipe would be attached to the large pulmonary artery. The other end would then be sewn into the large hole in Mikey's heart and they would begin to warm and try to re-start his heart. Of course, he would come out of surgery on a ventilator and may be on the vent for some time.

We certainly had not expected this news when we went to Little Rock.

Mikey is home, feeling fine, laughing and smiling, full of life, full of energy and hugging everyone he can get his hands on. Same ol' Mikey. Showing no symptoms, other than lack of stamina and getting short of breath.

We don't know when Little Rock will get back to us, and we don't expect any immediate action. We just need y'all to keep Mikey in prayer, and we all will believe God for another miracle.

             

While you are here, Please sign Mikey's guestbook.
Thank you!!!