Jumping for fun!

Here's Sara jumping, it took me a while to get this to upload! She's kind of distracted, but still entertaining.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday Grandma, here's some pictures for you! Love Sara & Hailey

good news

Sara's doing great. The Cardiologist thought she was looking good, and we're going to start weaning her off one of her meds. Yay! She's 14lbs. 10oz, and 69cm long. Sara's oxygen sats were great when he checked, 90%. Then next time he wants to see her is in Feb. She may have a cardiac catherization to measure pressures in her heart and lungs this spring, they're saying maybe in April in Vancouver.
We're looking forward to being in Salmon Arm and Edmonton seeing our family for Christmas! It's coming up fast, Hailey's so excited!

Update on Sara & Please pray for Ella Engel

This November has been going by so fast! Sara has had a couple Dr. appointments because she had an ear infection & thrush. She is now doing well, and she's off the anti-biotic for the ear infection and soon to be off the anti-fungal for thrush. She's been slow to gain weight, but we're happy she hasn't lost weight. Sara's 14 pounds and she's been growing in length so much, 7cm in the last 6 weeks.
Next appointment will be with Dr. Russell, pediatrician in Campbell River for RSV and check up. Then immunization shots and H1N1 & Flu shots the day before we go to see Dr. Sinclair in Nanaimo. After The first 2 weeks of December slows down we'll be able to relax, and make plans to see family & friends for Christmas! Yay!
If you read this post today, please pray for Ella Engel, and her family. She's had a rough day after her surgery this week, and emergency surgery at BC children's hospital today. We love you Luke & Pam and we're praying for you.

Sara jumping

"I lost my dentures!"

Sara's new expression. We call it her "grandma face"!


She loves her toes, here she's talking to them!

The Bunny & Butterfly

All dressed up to go out! The play group here on Quadra had a costume party so I dressed up the girls! The bunny ears didnt' stay on Sara's head too long, she kept pulling them off! Instead of carving a jack-o-lantern for Halloween, we carved Bob & Larry from Veggie Tales!
I think it looked better in the dark!

Jolly Jumper

Sara loves her Jolly Jumper, and it's been entertainment for us all. We took this video & picture last week, it was the first time in her Jolly Jumper since her heart surgery. It's nice to see her improve, and have more & more strength in her legs everyday. I'll post another video later on this week to show you how she's progressed.

Victoria

Sara and I went to Victoria to meet Dr. Sinclair. She had an Echo on her heart and all good reports from the Doctor. We talked about getting her in for a Cardiac Cath sometime in the next 3 months. Her health and oxygen sats are good (83). She weighs 13lbs. 9oz. We were there for just a short time, from 12pm to 2:45pm, so I was able to get in a little shopping! :) Our next appointment will be in December and in Nanaimo, because Dr. Sinclair does clinics there. We're happy about that, it's only 2 hours away.
Joel & Hailey had a great day together. There's a camp in right now, and they gave the campers buggy rides.
Thanks for praying for us. It's great to hear good news. Thank you Lord!

So Sweet

Here's Sara & Hailey today. We had a great afternoon,
I got caught up on some housework while Sara napped,
and Hailey had some quite time reading in her room.

Appoinments...

Sara came home with the NG feeding tube because she wasn't eating enough, and on Thursday she pulled it out an decided to play with it-yuck! I wasn't worried because we were to see the Pediatrician in Campbell River on Friday. The Doctor decided to see how she does without the tube, and go from there. If she isn't gaining well, they'll put the NG back in. We'll go to the clinic here on Quadra to get her weighed each week. As far as how Sara looks the doctor is pleased, and we'll see him monthly. Today I made an appointment with the Cardiologist in Victoria. They'd like to see Sara on the 21st of October for an Echo on her heart.

We are doing well here at camp, Joel is enjoying working with the horses. Hailey, Sara and I are working on getting a routine going while trying organizing the house! We try to get out of the house because the weather's been fairly nice here, but it doesn't always happen! We're also looking forward to Thanksgiving here, although it will be a first without family! (Maybe I can still convince them to come!)

Home Sweet Home!

I'm home with Sara! We travelled on Monday, it took 12 hours to get here, we waited for & on ferries for 5 hours, and the driving time was only 7 hours! Sara was a great little traveller, she slept & played with toys for a lot of it. It was nice for her to have the ferry ride for a break from the car seat.
I spent 2 days in Salmon Arm, and it was awesome to see my family. I had a great time, and I wish it was longer. I was away from home for less than a month, but it felt like so much longer. Joel & Hailey went ahead of me to Salmon Arm for a week, and then Quadra. So we were apart for the longest time ever and I was so impressed how well Hailey did! She was content to hang out with Dad while he was at work here at camp, doing things like feeding horses & working with the tractor in the field. Daddy's girl.
Sara has an appointment with her Pediatrician in Campbell River on Friday. After that we'll find out when we'll be headed to Victoria to see the Cardiologist there.
Getting home to Quadra was such a great feeling, home at last!

Travelling tomorrow!

Sara and I will be going to Salmon Arm tomorrow! Sara's doing well. She isn't feeding that well, so she still has a feeding tube. We'll be going as soon as we can in the morning. You can pray for safety as we drive, and hopefully it won't take us too long to get there! Thanks for praying.

No Surgery tomorrow

Sara's Cardiac Cath surgery is cancelled. Joel got the call from the hospital this evening, after I had left. The doctors think she is doing well, her Oxygen sats have come up. So we're going to work on getting her to feed better and hopefully out this week!

I was so happy to go to Red Deer this afternoon to visit with Heidi & Paul and the Boyes family. It was nice to see them for a short time. Short but Sweet! Thanks so much.

On the weekend I didn't post anything because there was no news about Sara. But I did have a great time with the Germann's. Thank you Maria, see you Thursday!

prayer

Thank you all for your encouragement! I can't even count the number of people praying for Sara anymore. God is so good, and we are so blessed by the body of Christ. Thanks for being committed to praying for us, we love you! Joel, Karey, Hailey & Sara <3

I talked to the doctors this morning. They decided to do a CT scan instead of a MRI yesterday, it's less invasive. I haven't heard the results of that yet. The results of the Venogram (picture of the veins) is that they found blockages, and veins that are finding another route to the heart. But what they found should not affect the oxygen sats. So they are going ahead with a Cardiac Cath on Wednesday, but not to coil or clamp any veins, it'll be just to measure pressures in her heart & lungs. Her oxygen sats today are a little higher, they're not sure why. The Cath should help them to resolve some of the questions hopefully. You can pray that Sara will eat more, other than that there shouldn't be any changes until after the Cath surgery in Wed.
I had a great day visiting with my father-in-law, Larry. We also saw Heather & AJ, Grandpa, Auntie Linda & Uncle Myrl. It was a lot of fun and nice to get out for a while.
I love that even though she's going through this all she's still happy and having fun playing with toys. It just brightens my day! Thank you Jesus! Love you all, Karey

These pictures were taken yesterday. Sara was doing well, but today her oxygen levels dropped. The surgery she had done shunts a vein to drain blood into the lungs. As far as I know, that vein is now blocked, and the blood found/made another route into "new" vessels to the body instead. Sara is doing fine with oxygen right now, still her happy self. Today they did and echo, tomorrow the MRI or the just may go ahead with a Cardiac Cath in a couple days. (No date set, so I don't know when to say.) I'm happy to see they investigated the problem, and I'm hopefull for everything to go well. There are excellent surgeons here, and they're all doing a good job. I was wanting to get back to Salmon Arm and join up with Joel & Hailey, now that won't happen. I am really glad they found this now and not after being discharged. Joel & Hailey went to Salmon Arm on Monday. Joel's getting some work done this week and Hailey's having a great time with her cousins and Grandparents. <3

I was so happy to see friends today, Dan, Bonnie, Tim & Hannah Baskill were there at the Stollery. Hannah was having tests done, and although her diagnosis hasn't changed the Doctors looking after her there are hopefull about their situation. Praise the Lord! Another reminder to keep praying for Hannah, (she has Primary or possibly Secondary Pulmonary Hyper-tension) and their family. We are just so blessed to know them, they are a wonderful family. Love you guys!

Sara's MRI is set for Friday, they changed it. No surprise there!

The last couple days there really hasn't been much change. Sara's been happy for the most part, playing with toys & smiling. She will go for her MRI tomorrow. If that goes well we should be able to leave on Friday! Today she's off oxygen and her feeding tube came out. It's nice to see her doing well, Praise God! Thanks for praying!

Today Sara was very irritated anytime she was awake. So they gave her morphine for pain, and she was herself for the first time since before the surgery! She was laughing and giggling for Hailey! It was so fun to see her so happy full of smiles. We had a great day there with her, and are looking forward to getting out as early as next week. Its very exciting news. As long as Sara eats well and gains weight there should be no reason to keep us! Cross your fingers! hehehe

Yesterday Sara went up to the floor! She's now in a semi-private room on the 4th floor. It's so good to see her up there and spend time with her. Today they're going to start bottling, hopefully she'll start eating well and gaining. Then she'll be able to go home hopefully! It's a big change from the PICU, and we're glad to see her doing well. The highlight of my day was holding her for the first time since before her surgery!

Yesterday Sara was flashing her eyes at the nurse, and we missed it! Today she is doing much better, we were there to see her awake! She is starting to try to move around and pull on things. It's great to see start to be her normal self, she's such a sweetie. She's doing so well that they're talking about moving us to the floor in a couple days! Praise the Lord!

Yay! At 5:30pm Sara had the breathing tube taken out. The real struggle is to keep all the pressures in her heart & pulmonary artery stable. Hopefully she'll keep on doing well, and not have to go back on it. It's a pretty big step to have her off the ventilator. She's still swollen and can't open her eyes but there's a lot less tape, we're so happy to see her face!
We went to Fort Edmonton Park today. It was a first for Hailey and I. We enjoyed it so much it was great to get out of the hospital for a couple hours and explore all they have set up there. I'll post some pictures when I have a chance.

Sara is having her chest closed today. If everything goes well with the surgery Sara will be on her way to recovery, wait & see as always. We're going to see her after they're finished.
We had a great morning at the Evangelical Fellowship church, and then met up with Joel's Auntie Linda & Uncle Myrl at the hospital. Later we're going to visit with Todd & Anita at the Germann's place. We're Looking forward to seeing them.
We're so thankful for everyone who is praying for Sara, we're feeling at peace about it all. It can only be from God!

Today has been good. Sara is doing ok, but still very swollen. Hopefully she'll be less swollen tomorrow and have her chest closed. Sara is going off the paralizer to keep her still. They're still sedating her because she's still moving around a lot.
It's slow at the hospital, Hailey doesn't last long. We've got some movies here for her tonight and she'll love going to Sunday school tomorrow, even if it's at a new place. We're going to try a church near here tomorrow, it's only 2 blocks away!

active little girl!

Today Sara is improving slowly. She really has the will to move around and stay where she wants to be, so more sedation is needed. They still haven't closed her breast bone, so they really don't want her to arch her back and try to roll over! We're waiting until she's stable for 24hours before they'll try to close her chest.When I walk in and talked to her she immediately reacted, and tried to move. It was nice to see that she hasn't lost her strength, and that she recognizes our voices. What a cutie she is! Thanks for praying for her.

Sara's 2nd Surgery on Sept. 2nd

Sara had a by-pass surgery called the Glenn. It allows blood to follow freely to the lungs, because the right side of the heart wasn't pumping it well enough. Her surgery it self went well, acomplishing what they needed to do. But after moving her to the PICU she took a dive and her heart was crashing. The doctors realize now that the left side of her heart isn't working well.

Today she is stablized, but no imporvements yet. We're waiting to see what she's going to do.
~If Sara improves they would wait to see how she does, and help her improve as much as possible. It always takes time for the organs to recover and start working properly again.
~If Sara goes into cardiac arrest she will be put on the heart & lung machine, and to the top of the transplant list.
~If Sara stays the same, stablized but not improving she will also go on the transplant list. The doctors are discussing whether or not we need to meet with the transport team today. After we meet with them they would be getting things underway for a transplant if it's needed.

It's no surprise to us because we knew from the start that a transplant may be the answer. It would mean a whole new set of problems to deal with. So we'll let you know what they decide, right now, like always it's the wait & see game!

We're so blessed to have hope in Jesus, and we're trusting God will work through all of it. We're hoping for the best for Sara, we don't like to see her struggle. Praying for her to be pain free, and praying for the doctors to have the wisdom to know what to do. We're so thankful that we're here, they have the best doctors and equipment for Sara. We're also greatful for all of the support & prayer from our friends & family.

Before & After Surgery