I'd like to take this time to thank each one of you for your kind thoughts and prayers. My wife and I were both touched by how much support has come from people, most of whom we've never met. It warms our hearts to know that so much love and prayer will be behind us when Drew has this procedure done.
The hard part for me is knowing that he will have a hard time understanding the pain he will feel in order to accomplish this surgery. He's just 4 years old, and I hope he'll know that we would never cause him any pain unless it was unavoidable. The procedure he's having done is the Ross Procedure, where his pulmonary heart valve will be removed and used to replace the defective aortic valve. A tissue (most likely pig) valve will be installed in place of the pulmonary valve. The main benefit being that anticoagulants and immunosuppressants are not needed. He's having this done at Children's Hospital in Seattle by a surgeon who has performed 125 of these procedures. So far the tally is 1 death, 1 pacemaker needed, and 123 successful procedures. So the odds look pretty good for Drew and us. And with your thoughts and prayers with us, we feel confident that everything will go fine.

Again, thank you for your kindness. My whole family appreciates the support we have received from this "community". You're all special people.

Dan, Sue, Cole and Drew Sandberg