.benny.

my heart is heavy as i write this. in fact my heart has been heavy for several weeks now. my friend benny who i worked with at camp several years ago is fighting for his life. benny has a heart condition that runs in his family. his family has lost benny's brother who also worked with us at camp a handful of years ago and then last year his father. last year benny got a new heart! which his body accepted and he was able to return to his family (2kids and wife..now a 3rd child born end of dec09) this december he went in to get a valve replaced and his kidneys failed during the surgery. below is the latest email from his support page on facebook written by a family friend. i post this for a few reasons. first and foremost so you can pray for him and his family. second to remind you and i of how grateful we we should be for our families, our health and all the blessings we consider normality. i take for granted the basics of life that i'm sure benny would love to have just a few hours of instead of laying in a hospital bed.

2/9 - 9:05PM : Ben continues to experience a lot of pain, which is controlled through continuous doses of Dilauded (a heavy narcotic). This narcotic tends to cause him to sleep much of the day. It also causes moderate short-term memory loss.The most recent surgery was to remove all of the blood clots (and debris) around his lungs. This has given Benny the ability to breath better and reduced his pain. This also prepped his body for the inevitable surgery to receive a heart transplant.Currently Ben's kidneys are still non-functioning (8 weeks so far). 10 weeks is the limit before the kidneys are considered dead. He continues to have nearly daily Dialysis (2 or 4 hour sessions). But unfortunately this hasn't been the same as having real kidneys and has put additional stress on his liver, spleen, etc., which has reduced their functionality. Kidney transplants are an option, but they don't want to transplant until after Ben gets a new heart.Ben's heart is in the process of failing right now. Not only does it have problems sealing up the valves, but it doesn't stay in sinus rhythm. In fact, they've cardioverted (shocked) his heart last week but that hasn't helped. Tomorrow he goes under general anesthesia to have cardia ablation which means they burn small portions of heart (problem areas) to get the heart to beat normally. Hopefully this will resolve his atrial flutter.The long-term prognosis is that Ben needs a new heart. His kidneys need to be working before they'll consider listing him because, otherwise, he won't survive the surgery. But he can't get new kidneys until he has a heart that can support them. Catch-22. So here's where the miracle can happen with his kidneys regaining function.Here you go, you prayer warriors. You have your mission.

I did get the chance to stop by OHSU today as Benny was going through dialysis. he was
sleeping. so i left a note and headed out. please also pray for his support team of people who are spending the night with him. i was told he likes visitors and they keep him going. so if you know benny and you get the chance ..go!