Sister rejecting heart...

Guys, I'm turning to you because I know you prayer warriors will be there...

Please, please, please pray for my sister. She is 18 years old. Eight years ago, she had a heart transplant. She has done amazing from it, never had any problems, and the doctors have been speechless at how wonderful the match of the donor heart was to her own tissues and how healthy she has remained since the transplant. She went in this morning for a regular check up (she has them once every 3 months) and during the exam, the doctors found an "irregular heartbeat" that they called atrio-fib-flutter. They sent her in for an emergency biopsy to rule out rejection, although they did not think rejection was the cause at all. There are 2 types of rejection. The first set of rejection results came back negative, and without going into all the details because they are rather boring, I'll just say that this type of rejection is the hardest to diagnose because it doesn't show up on clinical tests (i.e. echocardiogram, bloodwork, listening to heart, etc.), so when this came back negative, they thought they were clear and sent us home to wait for the results of the rest of the biopsy. We got word a little while ago that these results came back positive. She is at a level 3 rejection - the highest level is 4. They admitted her immediately, and she is currently in the pediatric intensive care unit. They are treating her with high doses of medication and hoping that it clears the rejection up. This is not good, guys. They have a very little time frame when working with transplant patients that go into rejection. If they can't get it under control, she is facing a second transplant (assuming a heart became available), or death. I can't even begin to tell you how devastated she is - or her family is. She is not a typical kid and never has been...she is truly amazing and placed her life in God's hands a long time ago. We all know that He is in control through this.

Please, please, please pray that they are able to get this rejection under control quickly.

I will update when I can, however, it may be a few days...

Thank you in advance for your prayers, and I know that my sister thanks you from the bottom of her heart...

-His,
JOYfulBeliever

Thank you all so much for your prayers...and Mr. Cheese, thank you for the laugh from the image that popped into mind when I pictured you "sending your odor heavenward!" You can't even begin to imagine how good that felt!

My sister is home. She came home yesterday afternoon, however, she is still in pretty serious condition. She is taking very high doses of steroids and is not feeling well at all. She is very quiet, and somewhat depressed, but most of what is going on is because she feels really rough. I wish you guys knew her. If you didn't know something was wrong with her, you would honestly never suspect it. She is normal - above normal - in every way imaginable. And for her to be facing this right now is just really tough on her. She will have more bloodwork done tomorrow and will go back into the hospital for another biopsy later this week. We will not know if the steroids have cleared up the rejection until we get the results of the biopsy.

Please continue to keep her in your prayers...some specifics would be (1) that the rejection clears up and has not done any permanent damage, (2) that she would FEEL better, (3) that her spirits would be lifted, and (4) that the swelling from the steroids would be minimal - as this is upsetting her a great deal...

Thanks again for all your prayers...I will update if anything changes.

Thanks again for the prayers guys...she was a little more like herself today, but she still isn't feeling real well. She's very positive and optimistic that this is just a challenge and she will beat the battle - and that is the best outlook for her to have. Her faith is amazing, and she knows that God is in control. She doesn't question Him and even right now, is using her life, her trials, and her story to share God's love with her friends that she knows are unsaved. She's an amazing person.

Please continue your prayers for her. She still isn't able to tolerate a lot of food, and isn't getting a lot of rest because she is miserable, but boy, is today an improvement over the last several days...and to God be the Glory!