Hello Friends,

Last Thursday my daughter took her youngest son (just turned 17) to the Cardiologist. A couple of weeks before she had taken him to family doctor as he was experiencing shortness of breath with normal daily activities and had had some chest pressure. The EKG showed some definite abnormalities so she had set up the specialist appt.

The Cardiologist did an Echocardiagram and took a history. She believes that both he and his brother (age 20) may have Marfan's Syndrome and one of the Ehler's Danlos Syndromes. Anyway, both have to do with your connective tissue. If you have Marfan's your connective tissue doesn't have enough fibrin. If you have the Ehler's your connective tissue doesn't have enough collagen. Either one could be dangerous and life threatening, but to have the two together would be catastrophic!

The youngest one also has something called pectis excavatum--where his chest wall sort of dips in and doesn't give his heart and lungs adequate room for their growth and functions. His aorta already shows a marked widening at the arch, as though he is developing an aneurysm there. She said she had never know of a case where one person had all three problems.

The older boy dislocated his shoulder while he was sleeping about three weeks ago. He also wears a 38" sleeve--long arms and long fingers are a symptom of Marfan's. My daughter's ligaments are so loose that even though she is in better shape physically than 99.9% of the people, the least little thing can cause a sprain.

The entire family is to have genetic testing on March 28th. My daughter has been away from the church for some time. I told her I would be praying and asking my friends to pray. She said, "Don't pray that we don't have it, because whatever is there is already there. Just pray that whatever it is that God will give the doctor's the wisdom and us the strength to deal with it."

So please pray that prayer with me. And also pray that in some way that God will use this to bring my daughter back to a close relationship with Him.

Thank you for your prayers, and may God bless you one and all,
mizmufett