My Little Brother

I realized earlier that I don't talk about my family much, on this blog. It's not that I don't love them or aren't close with them. Actually, quite the opposite. I love them dearly and see them every single day. Pretty much every night, we're gathered around the TV watching Glee or Grey's or arguing about who should get kicked off of American Idol. We all ride separately to church every Sunday, but sit together and then go to lunch.

There's my baby brother, Trevor. He was born when I was 9 1/2. When he was in K-2 grade, I was 10-12. I drove him to school every morning and home most days after school. I'll never forget him running to the edge of the playground every time he saw me changing classes. Or, him walking through the halls with me and people I wasn't even friends with saying, "Hey, Trevorman!!" He's literally the coolest kid you'll ever meet. He's funny and charming and athletic and caring.

Being raised in a daycare, he's always been awesome with kids. This summer, he was on a mission's trip to North Carolina and he was assigned to a sports camp where there was this little autistic boy. The little boy hadn't spoken to anyone for the whole 6 weeks he'd been there. The 2nd day of Trevor's week, he started talking to Trevor. He wouldn't leave Trev's side.

Since then, Trevor has been to a national convention of our church's youth. Our former pastor was there (he's now the regional superintendant) and he started talking to Pastor Larry about ministry. He feels like he's being called to be a Youth Pastor.

He gets on my nerves and can be your typical little brother, don't get me wrong. But, I've always hated when he was in pain or even when he was sad. He's my baby brother.

Well, Wednesday night, my mom and I were on our way back from a Tampa excursion when she called Trevor to see if he was home from church. He was visiting a church in the next city over and she wanted to see how it had gone. While on the phone, Trevor told my mom that his chest was hurting. It started while he was driving home and was getting worse. He has asthma, so mom asked if he was having trouble breathing..... "No, mom. I'm breathing just fine. It's my chest. My heart hurts."

Mom said that she would check on him when she got home... we were about 15 minutes away. When we got home, she checked in and he said it was getting worse. She took his pulse and his heart rate was at 140. To the ER, it was.

By the time they got to the ER and they took his vitals, it was at 229. They immediately took him back to the Critical Care Unit and started working to bring his heart rate down. My stepdad and I got in the car and rushed down there.

They managed to stablize him, but his heart rate was still too high for resting. They spent all day yesterday running tests to try to figure out what the problem was. Finally, they came to the conclusion that it's either Supreventricular Tachycardia or Ventricular Tachycardia. SVT would be way preferable to VT. They would have to do a procedure to explore his heart and find out which one.

Today, they spent almost 4 hours exploring. They couldn't find where the problem had originated. They were able to find another abnormality (that didn't cause the problem) and fix it. They tried to find what they were looking for, but just couldn't.

They ran a few more tests and should have the results, tomorrow. If everything checks out, they will send him home tomorrow or Sunday. From then, they'll monitor him closely for the next 8 weeks. No driving, no sports, no caffeine, no meds (he takes ADD and acne meds).

He's scared out of his mind, but is keeping great spirits. He's literally got visitors from the moment they allow them to the moment they kick him out. Obviously, my mom is staying with him.

He's 17 years old. He's ending his Junior year. He likes baseball and lives for the Red Sox..... one of his dreams is to go to every major league baseball park in the country (he's about halfway there).

He's 17 and is the only one under 50 currently on the Cardiac Floor.

I'm kind of freaking out, to be honest.

I've been going to work during the day because I can't just handle sitting in a waiting room all day while he's getting tests/procedures. Then, I go and sit up at the hospital until my mom kicks me out, lol.

I trust that God has this under control. I really do. It's a good thing He knows what's going on, because goodness knows no one else does.

If you would keep Trevor in your prayers, I'd really appreciate it.