Hearts "beeping"

This picture is one that Markus took while Heidi and Martin were visiting earlier this year, the view is across the street from our house. The rainbow is symbolic of hope, and this last week has seemed to pivot on that very theme.



About heart's "beeping"....that's what Jalen calls it anyway. He asks if his heart is "beeping" right now and what it looks like. He said "is my heart beeping fast like this?" (picture spastic motion here). I said "your heart beat is regular honey".
"What does regular look like?" he asks.
Hmmmmm.....good question. :)

It led to an exhaustive internet search as my extremely determined five year old wants to see a REAL heart beating right NOW, thank you. The graphic simluator was not going to cut it. I was going to find a real heart or have one pissed off kid tonight. We finally found a medical video of an open heart surgery. It was for a valve replacement...a bio valve no less. Yay.

He watched that damn video entranced. He kept smiling and asking questions as I prepared to cover my eyes. It was alright though. I couldn't see the chest exposed, it was a close up, so I managed. He never batted an eye. They sucked out blood, they pushed, pulled, prodded, they hook up the valves to the bypass machine. Jalen stares.
The heart stops beating as the bypass machine takes over, they explain how to cut away the thickened valve (which is supposed to be as thin as tissue paper inside).
Yep, great viewing for the young child.

He was SO excited about finally finding a live heart to view, that he jumped up a couple of times to try and get Sierra to "come see this REALLY cool video Sierra, it's a real heart", but she passed this round. After a bit, he moved on to my anatomy book, with the diagrams on hearts open of course.

He and Sierra are now watching Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. It seems so tame by contrast.

We took our temporary pet home today, Sammie seemed happy to see Mary and John. Speaking of John, he can't get out of bed as he managed to damage his pelvis (fracture) in addition to his broken (and now pinned) wrist. He will be on bedrest for 8 weeks, then therapy. ugh. The boys were just happy to see him alert and joking around, I think they figured he'd be all loopy on painkillers.