29/12/2023
My 16-year-old son Dylan was hospitalized at St. Luke’s in Boise, Idaho, on December 21.
After many tests and labs, the pediatric cardiologist declared that she knew WHAT was happening but not WHY it was happening.
In the middle of the school day, Dylan’s heart began beating rapidly: 180+ bpm. He wasn’t running or nervous or doing anything any more strenuous than walking back to class after his lunch break. The school nurse called me and I took him to the ER. It wasn’t long after he was given an EKG. Then he was admitted to the hospital.
On top of the rapid palpitations, Dylan has something called vascular regurgitation, more commonly known as a heart murmur. This means that every time his heart beats, a bit of blood sneaks out through the in-door AND in through the out-door. This, plus the random episodes of high heart rate, means he’s going to need to have some procedures done. The plan is to take him to Stanford University Hospital in California to have the country’s best heart doctors figure out what is causing these symptoms and then correct them.
Dylan is an amazing person and I am ridiculously lucky to have him as my son. He is a fun and funny guy. He is always thinking of others. He is an excellent big brother to Jake and Eliza, and his spirit and enthusiasm for life blows me away every day.
He is so calm and reasonable about this entire situation, it is astonishing to me. Earlier today his cardiologist, Dr. Alexander, said it best when she remarked about how “chill” he is.
That was her word…
“Chill”
He was making jokes with her about the idea of awkwardly having to make chit-chat with his surgeons if they decided to only use a local anesthetic for one of the more lengthy exploratory procedures he has in his future.
He is so positive it almost makes you forget how potentially serious this all could be. I’d say he’s a big ball of hope; but if you know Dylan, you know that doesn’t quite paint the correct picture. He’s more of a tall, thin tower of hope; and thankfully, his hope is contagious.
Now, no time is a good time for your child’s heart to malfunction, but 2023 has been particularly taxing on us. My wife Grace needed an emergency hernia mesh repair surgery followed closely by an emergency gall bladder removal. In the midst of all this, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and lost my job due to the company I was working for closing down most of its operations in Idaho. All these things depleted our savings and ate away at our paid time off work.
Luckily, I was able to get a new driving job after a couple months of searching and we were beginning to recover.
Unluckily, two days before Dylan was hospitalized, I hit a patch of black ice while driving at work and struck a power pole, bruising my ribs and leading to me losing that job about one week later.
I set up this GoFundMe to see if anyone would be willing to help us take care of Dylan’s heart, but I can no longer ignore the fact that we wouldn’t be in such a tight spot were it not for these other circumstances.
It is hard for me to swallow this last bit of my pride and ask for help like this. I’m not looking for pity; I just want people to understand the whole story.
I ask that you please pray for Dylan if you are inclined to prayer.
Please keep us in your thoughts if that’s more your speed.
Please consider helping our GoFundMe if you could. More so than direct donations, I’d ask that you’d please share the link and help to spread the net out as wide as possible.
It’s not easy for me to ask for so much, but honestly I’m scared. As much as we have a plan for treatment, everything is still so up in the air that I feel I am unable to let my guard down. Hence the babbling, longer-than-intended post.
Thank you to everyone who has already donated and shared your kind and supportive words.
We love you all.
Again, Thank you, thank you, thank you,
-Jim “Dad”
