Understanding Cardiomyopathy

This is Hadassah's room. There is a large window seat almost the width of a twin bed for Paul or I to sleep on. We have been taking turns. We are on the 9th floor facing south overlooking Manhattan and the Hudson River.

Yesterday was a quiet day and today looks like it will be the same. They did start her on one of the medications that she will be on at home and she is doing well with it. In fact, she feels so good that she doesn't understand what all the fuss is about.

Perhaps I should clarify that though the medications help her heart to function better and could, over time, assist in stablizing her condition, they do not actually heal her heart. As I understand it, there is no intervening "cure" for cardiomyopathy. That being said, people do recover from it about one third of the time and go on with their normal lives - more likely when the cause of it is viral. Another third of the time, the condition remains the same but stable with the medications. And the final third of the time, the condition deteriorates. It is too early to predict which "third" Hadassah will fall into or even what the cause of it was - though at this time there is "no indication that it was viral".

We thank you for your prayers and ask that you will continue to bring her needs before the Great Physician. My heart is constantly heavy and my chest tight but I know that our good Lord is here with us and that He cares for Hadassah even more than I do.