I don't normally do this, but I'd like to ask you all to send up a prayer for little Audrey Walker.

Audrey's Dad is Jim Walker. Jim is a world-ranked Masters Highland Athlete that throws with me here in Northern California. He's a great guy...got no attitude at all, always willing to slap you on the back and say "good throw" while he goes and tosses HIS hammer ten feet further! His wife is Heather Walker, a great lady! I'm just back from breakfast with Jim and Heather, and just after Heather headed off to get a shower, I said to Jim..."You know, you've got a winner, there."....Jim knows it.

Their daughter, Audrey went into Coronary surgery yesterday morning at Lucille Packard Childrens Hospital. I work at Stanford, just 500 yards away from Childrens Hospital, so I went by last night to be with them.

Here is Audrey Walker. Audrey is blind, but here she is at the Ben Lomond Games, on her mommys lap, just a month ago. She had just played pattycake with her mother. Jim swears she likes bagpipe music, a real lasssie, she is! ...



Here is what Audrey needed to have done, yesterday...

1.) Constructing and implanting a missing heart valve.
2.) Constructing the missing Aorta .
3.) Closing the hole in the middle of her heart in the
septum that seperates the two major halves of her
heart.
4.) Disengaging the peripheral arteries that God used to
save her life.
5.) Constructing a new artery and repositioning another
one.

I had the privilege of being with Jim and Heather last night when the surgeon came out....mind you, Heather handed Audrey over to the nurses at 8:15 AM yesterday, the surgeon went in to start work at 11:00 AM, and I was there are about 8:30 PM...NINE and a half hours... These are the results.

**It went as well as anyone could possibly expect

**He closed the vent in her atria, apparently with a gore-tex membrane, her systemic blood is now at 100% oxygen levels. There's no blood-flow short-circuit in Audreys heart any more.

**He managed to collect the collateral blood vessels and use the tissue to enlarge and lengthen her aorta. It goes the wrong way still, but it's an aorta, not something the size of a pencil lead.

**Her pulmony blood pressure is on the low side of normal...which is fantastic, she won't have issue with fluid leakage into her lungs.

**She has a donated heart valve, which will last her for 3-4 years until she needs a new one as she grows. THAT surgery will be a "2" on a scale of 1 - 10 in difficulty, whereas this one today was an "11".

Audrey's swelling and edema wasn't too bad so they actually stitched her back up again. She'll be in coronary ICU for several days and then will move to "regular" ICU. I got to visit Audrey this morning before work and she looks good, her color is much better, though I have to say that I haven't come across any more sights more sobering than a tiny infant with tubes sticking out of her, in a pediatric coronary ICU.

To properly understand this, you must "get" that Audreys heart was stopped for many, many hours. Her blood circulation was handled by a pump. The surgeon can't work on a beating heart, it would tear out all the stitches. He said that he was so confident in the structure of her reconstructed aorta, that he didn't need to test it...it's good to go.

I told Jim and Heather about X-Marks. TimC will recognize Jim. Jim wants every single one of you know that he thanks you, heartfelt thanks, for every single prayer and postive thought you send. Look, it's not every day I stand in a Childrens Hospital waiting room, get good news and have a world-ranked champion Highland Athlete break down in tears and hug me and his wife.

I briefly met the surgeon. He is professional, kind, gentle.... not an arrogant bone in his body, and the ENTIRE time he was with us he talked about the surgery team, the ICU team, the other doctors, how the whole team was caring for Audrey....not about "ME, the Surgeon". It was all... "we, we, we"...not "Me, Me, Me". Bless than man, and every single professional doctor, nurse, and aide in that facility, today.

While the surgery is over, Audrey is my NO stretch of the imagination out of the woods, yet. She'll be knocked out on morphine and aneathesia in coronary ICU for another 3-4 days, then she's transferred to "regular" ICU for another week. If you have a few minutes in your day and room in your heart, send a telegram to whatever Diety or power you believe in, and put in a good word for little Audrey Walker, and her mom and dad, Heather and Jim?

I've invited Heather and Jim and their two boys to the Nor-Cal Burns Night, maybe they'll come.