CHILD'S ILLNESS TEACHES FAMILY PATIENCE

Paige Bomar can ride a bicycle, run and play just like other children, but sometimes she gets a little tired or suffers a headache.

"We want her to live as normal a life as long as she can," said her mother, Dana Bomar. Paige is the oldest of three children. Her sister, Megan, is 8 and a brother, Hunter, is 3.

Paige was born with a hole in her heart that never closed as doctors had expected. Five months later, doctors discovered that she has no pulmonary artery that linked to her lungs, mixing both oxygenated and unoxygenated blood in her body.

In a normal heart, blood from the body containing carbon dioxide enters the right atrium of the heart muscle and is pushed through the pulmonary valve and artery to the left side before entering the lungs where the carbon dioxide is removed and oxygen added.

In Paige's body, the blood with carbon dioxide and oxygenated bloods mix so her blood is thicker than normal. She takes baby aspirin each day to help thin her blood.

As she grows her arteries have remained the same size so less oxygen is reaching her lungs as she gets older. Doctors say her condition will continue to worsen, and eventually she will need a double-lung transplant and reconstructive surgery on her heart.

Doctors had estimated that near age 10, Paige would need the surgery. So far, her condition hasn't deteriorated that quickly; she's actually doing pretty well.

The hardest part of dealing with Paige's illness is the uncertainty it creates, said Dana Bomar. "One of the hardest things is knowing but just not knowing when."

Some days, Dana Bomar would just like to have the surgery scheduled so the waiting would be over. The uncertainty can easily take its toll on the Bomar family.

The family is preparing for a move into an apartment in hopes it might make things easier financially should Paige require surgery soon. However, it means switching elementary schools and likely finding a new day care center.

Bomar, a single mother of three, spent a year working part-time on weekends and at night so she could study to be a respiratory therapist. She now works at Southeast Missouri Hospital.

Her daughter's condition prompted her career choice. Dealing with doctors and hospitals has "helped me cope with patients more," she said. "You know what they are going through and what they live with everyday."

Her co-workers at the hospital have been very supportive, she said. Family members in the area have also supported the family when they needed it, she added.

Paige is on a list for a double-lung transplant but has an inactive status until her condition worsens. She regularly gets check-ups from doctors in St. Louis, either at Children's Hospital there or at a heart clinic in Cape Girardeau.

"It's sort of scary," Paige said. But the doctors have explained everything to her so that she understands what will happen when she needs the surgery.

Her mother says even as a toddler, Paige had a great attitude about doctor's visits and hospitals. "Even when they'd come to take her blood she would tell them thank you," Dana Bomar said.

When Paige was a toddler, she developed pneumonia one year and her condition worsened to the point she was put on the active transplant list, Bomar said. But she recovered and her status changed.

"Once she gets something then it's going to be a bad year," she said. A small cold or strep throat could be dangerous. "We stay on top of a fever or see her doctor to make sure it's taken care of and that way it doesn't turn into something worse."

Bomar admits that she'd like to shelter her daughter but tries hard to give her a normal life. "She knows her limits," she said.

At school -- the children attend Blanchard Elementary -- Paige doesn't attend P.E. classes so she won't overexert herself. When she does too much, her lips or nails will turn blue and she has to rest.

When any problems arise or children tease her, "we just tell them it's the latest shade of lipstick," Dana Bomar said.

Teachers often ask what to tell other students who might ask why Paige doesn't participate in some activities, Bomar said. "I just tell them to be honest and that she has a special heart. Kids are more accepting than adults."

Another Cape Girardeau girl has received a double-lung transplant and is still recuperating in a St. Louis hospital.

Jalisa Durham received the transplant to combat a lung disease she had developed because of cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease that causes the body to produce a thick, sticky mucus. Durham had been on a donor's list since May.

She must receive three months of therapy at St. Louis Children's Hospital before returning home.

Lung transplants are becoming more common in children ages 6-10. Between 1994 and 1997, the number of lung transplants in children doubled, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.