Blake had his echocardiogram this morning and, believe it or not, but we already got the results. As you may have guessed, having a cardiologist respond to something this routine, that quickly, isn't really a good thing.

It turns out that Blake has a combination of congenital heart defects. Congenital meaning that he's had these since his heart was first developed and that there was nothing that we could have done about either one. On the same token, these are issues that need to be dealt with.

The first defect is the fact that Blake never developed his main pulmonary artery. It appears that he did develop the primary artery to each lung, however they may not be joined or even structured like your's and mine. Due to the fact that the main pulmonary artery is non-existant, other arteries have been doing the work in it's place and Blake's blood-oxygen levels are much lower than normal.

His second heart defect is much more common, he has a "hole in his heart" between two of the ventricles. Ironically, because of the first defect, this is a good thing, at least for now.

The next step is a contrast CT scan to get a better look at exactly how Blake's heart, arteries and veins are constructed. This will give us a much better idea of exactly what we need to do to going forward. If an adequate picture can not be obtained via CT, a second procedure involving small cameras will be performed to get a look at things from the inside (a camera is inserted via a vascular procedure through his leg up to his heart).

Once the CT is complete and we know what we're working with, it is certain that Blake will be undergoing open heart surgery sometime in the next month or so. An initial surgery will be performed to fabricate a main pulmonary artery (very likely using donor parts from a cow). After we can confirm that this surgery is successful a second surgery will be performed to fix the hole. Additional surgeries may be required to fix other, semi-related, issues after that. Only time will tell.

Because of the exact type of defect that Blake has and how you go about fixing it, this is something that Blake will need continued care with for the rest of his life. The tissue used to create a main pulmonary artery is not living tissue and thus, can not grow with him. Obviously technological advancements will affect the degree of continued treatment so, at this point, there is no reason to speculate about the details.

Rest assured that this is a problem that Blake has had all his life. He, nor his body, know any different and he has grown and will continue to grow and thrive just as would any "normal" boy. For the time being, Blake has no special requirements or restrictions.

As with any cardiac procedure, this is quite serious. If left untreated, the seriousness of the situation would only be exacerbated. Obviously, this is not a problem that can be ignored.

At this point we simply ask for your prayers and a continuation of the love that you've always shared with all of our children. Despite the anatomical problems with Blake's heart, he is still a happy and healthy boy and there is no reason to believe that any medical procedures will change that.

Please let us know if you have any questions and we will do our very best to answer them. This is something that we just learned of ourselves a few hours ago so we still don't know very much about it.

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Rebby, I'm glad you posted this to let us know.  I tried to call you a while back but maybe your number has changed.  In any case, I'm sorry to hear about what your family is going though.  I know doctors know what they are doing when it comes to that stuff, but no one wants to go through it.  and it's so tough when your guy is still so little.  Let me know if there's anything I can do to help out.

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I will keep your family in my prayers. My advise on the bills is that i've never found a provider yet that wouldn't take payments if you asked.

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Your kids look just like you Curt-only cuter.

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So it's been impossible to keep people updated on this. Lots of changes since my last post. Blake's surgery is scheduled for next Tuesday (March 22nd). Updates on his surgery will be posted to Caring Bridge. Search for "blakerebelein" if you're interested in keeping up to date.

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers.