From all of us, to all of you...

May you all be blessed this Christmas with

 JOY, PEACE, HOPE & LOVE!

Happy 6th Birthday Hailey!

Only a couple days late...

Meeting with the Cardiologists

We met on Tuesday to talk about doing a Fontan surgery on Sara. They believe it's the right thing to do, and think it will bring her oxygen levels up and help her grow. It was good to talk to them, we're feeling much better about it now. They will keep monitoring her every couple months until the surgery, and her next appointment is Dec. 19th. We'll keep updating the blog, Sara's open heart surgery will be sometime before spring. The hardest part will be keeping her from getting sick. She can't have a cold or flu for at least a month before they will do surgery. Seeing as she gets sick very easily, this will be a challenge. Please pray that she will stay healthy!

Surgery in the future

Sara's O2 Sats are too low, and our Cardiologists have decided to try another surgery to help bring it up. It will probably be the Fontan, but were still discussing it with them. We're not sure how soon they want to do the surgery, we'll keep you updated. Thanks for praying for Sara <3

Sara's Heart Cath Surgery

Last month Sara had an MRI, and the results showed she had low blood flow to the lungs through her Glen. So to find out why they did a Cardiac Catherization. The Cath was about 2 hrs long, and they found the same result. There was still low blood flow to the lungs because there are colateral veins and almost no forward flow through the right ventricle in her heart to the lungs. They measured pressures and they were all normal praise the Lord! 

At one point when Sara was recovering she has a shivering/shaking attack, a warm blanket seemed to help, and then she fell asleep. While asleep she turned very very purple and mottled all over, and they checked everything and found he oxygen sats were not low, but her tempurature, blood pressure and Heart Rate was rising. So we put her back on Oxygen, gave her Tylenol & Advil, after about an hour everything they checked was lowering back to normal. So I asked the nurse when do you see a fever rise up and rise down within 2 hrs? She said never! Often there's things that happen after surgery that are unexplained, and every Dr. has a different opinion about what's going on. We're just glad she was able to nap and wake up her normal self! 

God is good! Sara is doing so well, having fun playing with Hailey. Hailey was an amazing support to Sara, holding her hand and cuddling, coloring with her in her bed, just being so sweet to her.

So we can pray now for their discussion time on Tuesday, they are having a conference about what to do next with Sara. Our Dr. will call on Tuesday and let us know what they come up with. The options are to (1) wait to do either of these options or (2) deccide to go ahead with: shunting another vein to drain into her lungs called Fontan, or (3) put her on the heart transplant list. Either way we know God is taking care of us, and we can face anything in his strength. God gives us peace, we praise him for that! Many thanks to friends & family, your prayers are greatly appreciated!

Psalm 29:11 "The Lord will give strength to His people; the Lord will bless his people with peace."

Sara's Cardiac Cath

I just found out today that Sara is scheduled for next Wednesday October 26th. The Heart Cath will give the doctors more information about how Sara's heart is doing, measuring pressures in all her heart chambers and her pulmonary artery. Please pray the surgery goes as planned and that Sara recovers well. We'll be in overnight for sure, but after that it depends on Sara's oxygen sats, and heart rate returning back to normal.

Sara's MRI

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides good contrast between the different soft tissues of the body, which makes it especially useful in imaging the brain, muscles, the heart, and cancers compared with other medical imaging techniques such as computed tomography (CT scan) or X-rays. Unlike CT scans or traditional X-rays, MRI uses no inonizing radiation.

Sara had an MRI on Thursday September 22nd, and it was an all day event. We were up early and left home at 5:15am. We arrived at 6:30am and waited for them to let us in at 7am. By 7:30 she was ready to go, and getting an IV and put under. Once she was asleep, they intubated her and the proceedure was 2 hours. She took a long time to wake up, and once she was muttering out words and sounds it was a half hour before she even opened up her eyes! It was nice to hold her as she woke up because she was ready to get out of that bed and "Play" as she'd yell out! With out having control of her limbs and head this idea of "Playing" that she was set on, would have been very hard to do! We were moved up to the Cardiac unit on 4C4, around 11:30am. She was wide awake and not wanting to rest, so Tree House TV kept her entertained. She was so hungry that she ate and drank whatever was in front of her! Her oxygen Saturations were down even while on oxygen, and it took her a while to get back to "normal for Sara" (about 85%) before they started to wean her off it. We waited until about 3pm to see the resident Doctor, and he got the discharge papers going so we could go home. We left around 4pm, and were happy to be home at 5:30pm. 

The reason our Cardiologist wanted to do an MRI on her heart is to get a good look. She hasn't had one in the past, only Cardiac Caths which are more invasive and usually take Sara a week to recover from.

The result of the MRI shows that there is about 1/2 the blood flow through the Glen to the pulmonary artery. So this means there isn't enough blood flowing into her lungs, and this is why she has blue/purple lips often. They would like to see if the cause is collateral veins of if it is pressures in her pulmonary artery. Now they want to do a Cardiac Cath surgery sometime in the next few months to figure out why there is low blood flow to her lungs. The team of Cardiologist at the Cardiac Unit at the Stollery Hospital had a conference about Sara's MRI and decided on scheduling a Cath. After she has the Cath they will discuss and determine what will be the next step for Sara.

We are so thankful for all your prayers, we are so encouraged by all of you! Happy Thanksgiving!

little bit of summer...

                                

Happy Father's Day!

We are so thankful for the wonderful father's in our lives, thanks Dad, Grandpa Lepp & Grandpa Congo!

Sara had surgery to repair Strambismus (esotropia or "crossed eyes") November 2010. Her right eye was dominant and moved normally, while her left pointed inwards. Her surgery was a sucess, and her eyes were straight for some time. Now her left eye is dominant and moves normally, and her right eye turns outwards (exotropia). Her balance was off and we think it was because she was seeing double vision. Her brain can handle seeing double vision only so long, and then it decides to use one picture from one eye.

Sara's latest appointment was with the Optimologist at the Stollery Children's Hospital on Tuesday. The doctor says this is a frustrating thing that happens after surgery and some children may require a second surgery. Since her eyes are straight when she's looking at things near, repositioning the inner muscles in the first surgery was successful. Now the question is, will we be able to fix her eyes to be straight with a second surgery repositioning the outer muscles? We are being referred now to the surgeon to see what the next step will be.

Our next Cardiologist appointment will be July 29th at the Stollery.

Teddy Bear picnics inside when it's -30 outside!

Sara is starting to be herself again. Playing house with Hailey, dressing up, packing backpacks for camping trips, and pretending to go on hikes! Of course, Hailey directs all of their play, but Sara is happy to be wandering around, following her sister on all the adventures!

Pray for Sara

Sara has been sick yesterday and today. She has the flu, and hasn't been able to keep more then one and a half teaspoons of water or pedialyte down every ten min. She isn't dehydrated yet, but she is miserable in the day and the night. We're thankful the rest of us don't have it, and hopefully we won't! The last 6 weeks have been rough, she's been sick with a bad cold that got us into the Stollery hospital for two nights, then the flu, then an ear infection that we're not sure she's over, and now the flu again.

Please pray that she's feeling well again soon! Thanks so much.

Happy Valentine's Day

Lots of Love to you all!

No news is good news...

We saw Sara's new Cardiologist & Pediatrician this week. Sara had a echo, and an ECG, the report - no change. So although she has had a rough month as far as feeling under the weather, her heart function hasn't changed. It's good, because there's no surgery needed right now, Praise God! We're happy to see Sara getting back to normal now, eating & feeling a whole lot better this week. Thanks for continuing to pray! We see our Cardiologist & Pediatrican at the Stollery again on April 25th.

Birthday Girl!

We are delighted to celebrate our little girl's 2nd Birthday!

Sara you are so wonderful, we love you so much! You are such a

blessing in our lives! Happy 2nd Birthday Sara!

Last weekend...

Sara doing well

We spent the night, and got a great sleep here at the Stollery. Sara has been feeling well, and eating & drinking well. The Cardiologists are not going to decide to do a surgery just yet, they want a chance to reassess her on Jan. 31st when we see Dr. Rutledge and have another Echo on her heart. We are being discharged this afternoon because she has been keeping her oxygen Sats above 80% on room air most of the night and all of today so far! (If this changes, and she is desatting again we'll stay another night.) But we are looking forward to being home, Sara will be so excited to be walking around again, and playing with Hailey. Thanks for keeping us in your prayers, we're so thankful for all your love and support.

We are also looking forward to seeing Hannah, her & her family are in for more tests on her heart tomorrow. Please keep praying for her, we are very concerned for her. We are very happy to be able to see her today!

Stay at the Stollery

Sara wil be staying tonight as well. She needs to be on oxygen, and monitored. Last night was ok, she was pretty restless. Today she is acting more like herself, hopefully we can keep up with the required fluid intake. If she doesn't get enough fluids, she'll get an NG feeding tube in because her IV came out, and it's hard to find good veins. Sara's been happy and even content to get an echo done on her heart this morning. We'll wait to her later today or maybe tomorrow the results of the echo. More updates to come... love from Sara & Karey

Sara in the hospital overnight...

Sara has a cold & cough is most likely a virus, hopefully we'll find out tomorrow if there's anything we can do for her. So far we know it's not pneumonia, by the results of a chest x-ray she had today. We are spending the night at the Stollery Children's Hospital for observation. Sara's very tired, and has been settling quickly for the most part this evening. It's hard to keep the blow by oxygen on her face, the mask irritates her. Her oxygen, heart rate, and respiratory rate have been ringing the alarms, even after resetting the parameters to allow more leeway. We're are just hoping for a goodnight sleep and we'll see what the Cardiologists thinks tomorrow. Please keep us in your prayers, especially that Sara will drink & eat well and that her HR, O2 Sats & RR will level out where they need to be. We're really thankful to have the Stollery so close, and the familiar faces are so good to see. After over a year without being in the hospital with Sara we feel like 2010 was a blessed year for Sara. Praise the Lord!