Friday

Happy Friday! Andrew is doing very well today. He seemed a little grumpy yesterday, probably sore from his procedure. But today he's back to his happy, smiley self.
I had a pretty good day at work yesterday. It was a little wierd, like when you go on vacation & come home & your house looks strange to you. I was extremely unproductive though, the therapy department changed around a little bit while I was gone & I kept going in the wrong doors & had a hard time finding things, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it before too long. I enjoyed seeing patients again & even got a marriage proposal from one of my favorite dementia patients. He always asked on a regular basis, I just had to smile to get one on my first day back. I also got to see our Grandma Dottie who is staying a Vista (the nursing home where I work). It's nice to be able to pop in & see her before / after work. From what I hear she had a good report last time she saw her doctor & I'm hoping to see her out & about a little more. We'll see how good I am at twisting her arm. Thank you all for your continued prayers for Andrew, I'm telling you, they are working! If you could also say a prayer for our Grandma Dottie too. The Lord preserved her life for a reason as well.

Thursday Afternoon

Well, Dizzy went through the procedure- this time without a hitch- When the surgeon came in to tell us, Bess and I were holding hands and the first thing he said was, " You guys must be praying," I thought 'you don't know the half of it pal'- he continued, " because we only had one shot to get this line in, in only one place, and by the grace of God it went it" (his words, not mine). He was beaming- the Dr., that is, and told us another encouraging story of a baby up here. Anyways, it took a while to get in to see him, Dizzy, that is, but he is doing really good, no vent tube (which was a possibility) and no other issues.

Bess went to work today for the first time, so that means now I'm the man of the house, (hmmmm........), I know she was reluctant to go, but I'm keeping her updated with text and phone pics. Thank you all so much for the prayers, thoughts, comments, and encouragements.

Wednesday Evening

Hey ya'll, sorry for the lack of updating. Andrew had good days yesterday & today. This afternoon the doctor was able to get a peripheral line in so the old central line (the nurse & I named Bob after a monotone pharmacist) could come out a bit before his surgery tomorrow. He is scheduled to have the broviac line put in tomorrow morning at 7:30 am. For real this time. It's not a huge procedure, but he does have to go under, so your prayers are much appreciated. The cultures they took a couple nights ago checking for systemic infection have not grown anything - whoo-hoo! He is getting quite playful, which is a ton of fun. Big toothless smiles are a common place around here these days. We get to hold him for maybe an hour a day since they have to turn his feeds off because of the set-up.

Monday evening

As it looks now the broviac may be Thursday morning. They did another peripheral cultural this evening to make sure he dosn't have an infection throughout his body, in which case it would be bad to do anything invasive. We are still hoping the infection is in fact limited to the central line he currently has. Either way he is still on the killer antibiotics which counts for something. I am learning to pray in the everyday things like warding off infection in addition to the huge things like open-heart surgery. Steve had his first day back to work today & lo & behold, he made it. I got out of starting until Thursday since tomorrow is Steve's 30th birthday. I'll have to ask him to be sure, but I think Andrew makes it the best birthday yet. We love this kid so much!

My playful boys

Here's the video of Steve & Andrew playing. It's pretty much adorable. How much fun to have out little guy playing more & more. It's still not certain when the broviac will be rescheduled. I'll let you all know when I find out. Thank you all for your continued prayers! I know they make all the difference.

Monday Morning

Well, Andrew wasn't able to get his broviac line put in this morning due to technical difficulties. He is still doing well. Hopefully he will go tomorrow morning; we are waiting to hear back from the general surgeon on the scheduling. It's a little bit of a bummer to not have it done today & get that old central line out, but we are confident that the Lord is in control of every little circumstance. Andrew is still cute as can be. When I got to his room early this morning he was making eyes & cute little faces at the xray tech. I will try to post later to get some cute pictures up from saturday's play session & update on when he's rescheduled to have the broviac.

Two months old!

Happy weekend. I'm up with a napping Andrew. He is a happy baby today. Lots of smiles. This morning they started giving him milk through is g-tube. It's still a very little bit, but they are planning on increasing it little by little as he tolerates. The cultures they took yesterday did grow something, which means he has an infection, but the antibiotics they started him on (they always start one when they suspect an infection) has been effective & his white counts were already better. They suspect the infection is localized at the central line which is supposed to come out Monday morning when they put the broviac in. So we just hope the antibiotic does it's job in the meantime & we'll get rid of that old line Monday. Also, i don't think I mentioned yesterday that when they measured him to plot him on the growth chart for 2 months he weighed 4.3? kg (about 9.5 lbs) & was just over 22 in long. Grow, baby, grow!
In honor of his 2 mon birthday we brought in homemade peanut butter cups that his Aunt Katie made for us to share with the staff up here. The nurse practioner wanted to know how you get the peanut butter so perfect in the middle. I told her I don't know how you do what you do, but that those weren't even the best thing that you make. She said you should go into business. She's right. The world could use Comfort Foods. : )

a good friday

Andrew had a good day with big toothless grins - so great to see those again. He had a nice parade of visitors today with Aunt Katie early in the morning/afternoon (Steve & I have adapted a late schedule here), then Grammy T this evening & some of Steve's friends from work after dinner (habachi, again!). He made his Aunt Katie laugh & laugh by smiling to the max as soon as Mommy would put the camera phone away. Tw0 times I grabbed my phone to snap the picture, then I waited & waited for him to smile again & as soon as I gave up he would bust out in a big grin. What a tease! I think today was the first day since his surgery a week ago that he really smiled & really seemed able to rest comfortably. All very comforting to a mama. He's been getting pedialite all day (at a slow rate) with reflux here & there, but he seems to be handling that pretty well. He is tentatively scheduled to have the long-term ("broviac") central line placed Monday AM. He will have to go under anesthesia but the actual procedure itself only takes about 15 minutes, so he won't have to be under very long & hopefully he'll be able to be extubated right away. The did cultures again today because he had a low grade fever this morning, but the ones they did 2 days ago were negative so hopefully he hasn't developed anything in the meantime. So we keep loving him & praying for him. I can't help but be amazed at how well he is doing given everything he's faced this far. Thank you all for continuing to love and pray for him yourselves. Please keep praying for his belly to get moving so he can start getting milk & meds through his stomach (& keep it down) along with all the other prayers against infection & keep his heart & vessels strong & clear. It seems like a laundry list sometimes, but I'm sure God knows every need & is more than capable to address each.

Thursday night

Okay, so I'm not very quick to get back to upate for you guys, sorry. Andrew had a prety good day. This afternoon they started giving him some pedialite (no idea how to spell that) through his g-tube. They are taking it very easy though so it may take a few days to get his belly up and running. It is hard to be patient sometimes, but I appreciate being able to take things at his pace. I'd rather be slow & sucessful than push it & have bigger set backs. He didn't get a new central line today, he may possibly be getting a more long term line that's done by the surgeons - probably next week. In this regard please keep praying against infection since he's had the current central line in 3 weeks now (they usually don't like to keep them in longer that 7-10 days in effort to minimize risk of infection). Though I must say God has done wonders in that department as Andrew has been in the hospital for almost 9 weeks & hasn't had an infection yet. I think it's some kind of a record. He had cultures done the day before yesterday & nothing has grown last we heard.
Steve & I had a good time playing with him this evening for about a hour. Then he promptly fell asleep. He is so stinkin cute! I look foward to sharing him more when he's able to come home. He & I talked all about his family earlier today. I gave him the rundown on his grandparents, aunts, uncles & cousins. He was very attentive through the whole thing. We love you guys & as always thanks for the prayers!

Waiting room update

I'm sitting in the waiting room waiting for them to finish rounds so I can go back & see Andrew. There are a lot of little ones on the unit these days, so rounds can take a while. I just wanted to post a quick clarification. The video Steve put up last night of me walking around with Andrew is from last Thursday before he had his stomach surgery. We havn't been able to hold him again yet since he had his surgery, but we hope it won't be too much longer. As of last night his belly was still staying settled. Hopefully he'll be able to get something in his belly today. He was a little fussy, but I think it may be a hungry belly fussy. I post again later to let you all know what's new for today.
On another note, thanks to Kalee for the heads up on the eclipse. Steve & I checked it out & it was just like you described. Andrew wasn't able to go outside to see it this time, but I'm sure he'll like to see it next time.
We love you all. Thank you for the prayers. They are helping all 3 of us through this.

No Strings Attached

Please continue to pray for Dizzy'z belly to heal so he can begin feeds and GROW!!!!

Big boy bed

I wanted to get some video up for you guys. This one is from the night before last, right after he moved from the little infant bed to the big boy crib. How fun! Andrew is doing better today. His stomach dosn't seem to be bothering him much, which is a welcome change from yesterday. He did have a bit of action today. Aparently this morning he wiggled his artery line out & his peripheral line decided that it was done as well. He still has a central line but it's getting old. So they tried to put in a PIC line, but that didn't work out with his little tiny veins. At this point they are giving him the rest of the day off & planning on putting a new central line in tomorrow. Hopefully he won't need IV access on too much of a long term basis anyhow.

Tummy update

Thanks for the tummy prayers today. The surgeon just came by & let us know that this is not uncommon in the healing process for his surgery. Actually the cardiac team did a great job with his belly this morning beccause what the surgeon said helps the best is putting a n-g tube down with suction to keep the belly empty which is what the nurse practioner had done first thing. They also have him pretty much as comfortable as possible which has minimzed the 'episodes' & helped him get some rest. We are very relieved to hear this is part of the healing process, though an extremely uncomfortable one. We are hoping that the reflux 'correction' they did (a modified version because of his tiny stomach) will do trick so he dosn't need a second surgery once his belly gets bigger. The surgeon said a second surgery is a worse case scenario.
On a positive note, Andrew was the healthiest baby cardiac-wise on the unit today. Hurray! Hows that for a change. I must say, if it was at all appropriate I would give the team here a stanging ovation today. They are always great, but this was one of the busiest, most intense days I remember since we've been here. And we've been here a while. : ) I am so grateful that Andrew is here! & how great it is that we are only about an hour from our home. Well you all are so great, I'm sure we are the most blessed family ever.

Tummy Trouble

Andrew had a pretty rough night & a rougher day. For some reason he has be dry heaving a lot and spitting up bile. They have sedated him a bit more now to keep it to a minimum & try to prevent damage to his recent surgery site. We are waiting for the general surgeon to get out of surgery & come see him. Hopefully he'll have an idea about what's going on. Everything the cardiac team checked here with his tummy looks good to them. Also he is doing pretty well cardiac wise, considering. They are also checking for any infection. As you can imagine this is very scarry & discouraging as is seems today his tummy is worse than it was before the surgery that was supposed to make it better. Please pray! Thanks!

EXTUBATION, again

Well, it's been a pretty big day for Andrew. He got the breathing tube out early this afternoon, hurray. He is finally sleeping now. This kid likes to see how long he can stay awake, especially on exciting days like today. He hasn't been too fussy though. They had to put his cathetar back in last night, but he is still peeing pretty good. We'll try to tackle getting rid of that again in good time. We are hoping that if he keeps doing well he will be able to start getting a little food through his G-tube (feeding tube that goes directly into his stomach) as early as tomorrow. His blood pressure has been a little high, but they are keeping a close eye (as always) on him & addressing it as needed. That's about it. He's still adorable (we'll have to get some pictures up tonight when Steve get's back) & he also looks so big to me. I know he didn't grow that much from last night but I guess just getting the vent out of the way so we can get a good look at him makes a difference. I sure am proud of him going through all this & I thank God for the gift he is to us. Thank you all for continuing to follow Andrew & support us, especially thank you for the prayers.

Sunday Night

Well, we are up here hangin with Dizzy. He is more awake today and quite fussy. That is a good thing. Besides the Vent Tube and a couple IV's he is looking pretty good. He has 'passed' a lot of fluid, I mean a lot, which has dropped the swelling. They are talking of extubating him on Monday Morning. We are hoping for that too. There haven't been any real issues so far in his recovery, and I know I was surprised to come up here and see him so wide-eyed. When he gets the tube out we will try to be more diligent in getting some vids and pics up. Oh yeah, i forgot to say that he got his cathiter out, so he's going through diapers again! I guess that's about it for now. Please continue to pray for our boy. I am finding myself daydreaming more and more about getting him home and starting the whole semi-normal family stuff. I can't wait for the day to day stuff that I probably would have taken for granted if all this stuff hadn't happened. I pray I never do take it for granted.

Saturday Night (live)

We're hanging out with Andrew again, our favorite thing to do. He is still about the same. Slow & steady wins the race. He is peeing like a maniac, which will help the puffiness. He is still the cutest though. Right now we are looking at possible extubationon as well as begining trickle feeds through his new G-tube on Monday. Of course this is subject to change as always, depending on how Andrew progresses. We are really happy right now with how uneventful the past 24 hours have been. Thank you all for your prayers. This is a difficult journey. I don't think a parent ever gets used to this, at least we haven't, & your continued support is a blessing. Thank you Jesus for our little boy!

Saturday Afternoon

Dizzy's still very stable, he had a good night, though they've still got him pretty heavily sedated. he opens his eyes and moves around a little. But he is mostly just resting and recovering. There doesn't seem to be any post-op issues as of yet and we are praying that it stays that way. We would put up some more pics, but, you can just go back to his other operation photo's and you'll get the idea=) He is peeing real well, and the nurses said the swelling should go down after a couple days. that's about it for now, we will try to post up tonight with any new info. Thanks!

from the Mama

It's Betsy. I just wanted to say a quick thank you for all the prayers. Steve & I are beyond grateful to the Lord each & every time He preserves our son's life & I truely believe all of the faithful prayers (from around the world) play a major role. I pray all of you will be blessed through this journey as we have been. Keep it up!

Friday Night

Well, we are up here in Dizzy's room, just hangin out with the little guy. He is doing pretty well tonight. He gave us a couple of scares today, so we are hoping that is over with and now on to recovery. The surgeon came in after his surgery and said that as soon as they had gotten into his tummy area they found an adhesion wrapped around his bowels (don't ask me!?) he said it was about 14 inches long and described it as a 'banjo string'. He said as soon as he saw that he knew that they had to be in there, it was definately a life-threatening issue, and the Dr. was surprised that the blood flow wasn't already cut off. Needless to say, the reflux surgery became secondary for a moment. They fixed his bowels and they seemed satisfied with that. The reflux surgery didn't go quite as planned, but they were able to address the issue. Then Dizzy let the Dr's know that he was done being operated on and gave everyone a scare, but he pulled out of it on his own just before they put him on the Heart-Lung Bypass. Then he stabilized pretty well. the only other issue occurred around 4pm. His blood pressure dropped real low, the staff here figured out what the problem was and addressed it successfully. Ever since then he has been stable and steady. He needs to be pretty sedated for now just so he doesn't move around too much. But we are praying for a nice, UN-eventful night (Andrew! don't make me come up there!) and a solid, speedy recovery. Sorry it's so late for the update, but it has been a busy 'up and down' day. Thank you all for your prayers, thoughts, and support. We will post tomorrow after-noonish with a good report.

Surgery is done

Well the nurse pacticioner came in & let us know they are done with surgery. This was actually a high risk procedure given Andrew's condition, so we are extremely relieved he made it through but it was not exacty smooth sailing. They almost had to put him back on the heart-lung bypass. Thank you all so much for your prayers & please keep it up for his recovery. Praise God for getting our sweet boy this far... will update later when we can see him

Mid-Surgery Report

One of the nurses just came in and told us that Dizzy is doing good so far, they are not yet done with the procedure.... don't know how much longer, but as of now it looks good. Thanks

Friday Am

We have been up here in Dizzy's room since 6 or so, just hanging out with him a little before his surgery. He has been awfully uncomfortable this morning.... and for the past day or so. They are starting to get Andrew ready for transport now... we're going mobile. Moms is holding him now. We will be sure to put up a post when we hear anything. Thanks to all for the prayers.

pictures

By request, a couple pictures of Andrew & his mama, one of Andrew with his Uncle Richie taken today, & one with Uncle Matt from last Thursday. Too bad nobody wants to hold this kid. : )

Surgery tomorrow AM

Today was another good day. Andrew enjoyed visits from his Aunt Teresa & Uncle Richie from Georgia (& Steve & I enjoyed visiting with Kalee). He was a bit fussy today - seems like his belly was bothering him. He is finally resting with Daddy in the rocking chair. Man, this kid can wail! Of course we still worry, but it's nice to have some normal baby issues like just plain gassy. His surgery is scheduled for 7:30 am & the surgeon said it should take about 1-1.5 hours. We will definitely put up posts throughout so you all can keep updated. Thanks in advance for the prayers! Though this isn't as intense as open heart surgery, it is still a major procedure. To answer a few questions from the comments. We are staying at the RMH by Arnold Palmer Hospital, I believe the street is Kuhl St. Also, I don't know if you can hear the k92fm broadcast online, but I suppose if you would like to try you are welcome. It is the much shorter version of the blog : ) Last, but not least, Andrew would like to say a belated Happy Birthday to his Aunts Becki & Crystal who share a birthday on the 13th. He apoligizes for the tardiness & will try not to estabilsh this as a habit in his young life. Stay tuned for some photos.

Wednesday update

Hi guys. Steve & I are up here hanging out with Dizzy. We went home today for a couple of hours & I was getting anxious to get back after about 1 hour. I think Steve & I agree - home is where Andrew's heart is. I don't know how Steve did it for 4 days. We did get to see Tuskers today who is doing great (thanks again Vince & Sue for taking good care of him). I also got a chance to receive the gifts that my aunts & uncles & grandparents sent from NC. A lot of people in NC love Andrew : ) I hope you all know how much we appreciate the many gifts you've sent our way. We have not paid for one night at the Ronald McDonald House to date. And we were able to extend blessings to all the other babies on the unit tonight with blankets given to us from a woman in my dad's parrish.
The Ronald McDonald House really is wondreful. Actually K92 FM (a local country station) is doing a radioathon today & tomorrow to raise money for RMHs in Orlando (there are 2 in orlando) & I was on today sometime in the 10 o'clock hour. It's wierd, that's why I didn't tell anyone (but Molly - you should feel special & always remember to tell me things first or exclusively : ) until after it aired, but I was happy to help support the house. Children's Miracle Network is also currently conducting fundraising (107.7 FM radioathon among others), also a worthwhile cause A lot of the equipment & services around the hospital are supported by CMN.
Back to Andrew. He's doing great. Getting bigger & stronger. They took him all the way off his last IV med today & so far he's holding his own. His surgery is still scheduled for friday & we're hoping it sticks this time. I don't want him to have to go through it, but we're definitely ready to move forward. Please keep Andrew & his doctors in your prayers for friday. Thanks!

con't

Tuesday night

Andrew & I really enjoyed having Steve back with us all day! Thanks Vince & Sue for keeping an eye on our Tuskers while he continues his recovery. As of now it looks like Andrew will have his stomach surgery on friday. We are praying everything goes smoothly & Andrew has a quick recovery. Thank you all for continuing to lift our boy up in prayer. Hope you enjoy the videos.

Monday

Sorry I didn't put anything up yesterday, I was too busy hanging out with my little man. He is doing very well. He got his voice back over the past two days (his cry had been on mute since the last time he was intubated). The doctor had just ordered an ENT consult & later that day I started to notice a little voice in his cry - well there's no mistake about it now, the whole unit can hear it when he's unhappy. I love it! Better yet he has been getting pretty mad today (not that that's the good part - I think he's just gassy) & his oxygen sat, breathing & heart rates all stay within their limits. Before he would set the alarms off whenever he would get a little upset. Also, he was a whole 4.0 kg this morning! Hopefully we will hear soon about when his stomach surgery will be scheduled.
Tusk got his cast off today at his check up, so it seems like his recovery is going well. He has to wear the cone on his head now whenever he's not directly supervised so he dosn't chew at his stiches / get the incision infected. Poor guy. Very funny though. It'll be worth it when he can run around again.
Thanks to all for your support. We have an amazing group of friends & family (& strangers) that are helping us on this journey every day. Thanks especially for all the prayer - it's definitely working!

Saturday

Not much new to tell. Andrew is still a little congested, but doing well otherwise. I've had fun hanging out with him all day & we are both looking foward to a visit from Steve this evening. Tusk also seems to be doing well. He still can't move around too well because of the big cast he has from his hip to his toes, but the vet expects him to recover well since he was in such good shape before surgery. I was cracking up on the phone last night as I listened to Steve trying to get Tusk to take his medicine. Apparently he is really good at eating the treat all around his pill & then spitting it out. It took several attempts before he gulped a treat whole without chewing it (which had the medicine inside). It was all very funny over the phone. Well, Thank you all for tuning in. I hope things are going well out there in the world. Keep up the prayers; I think it's working - Andrew looks great!

Sneak Attack

Yes, it's me......... Steve........ you know..... ah forget it. i'm over here at our house watching a very, very drugged up doggie. But, I got the wireless working here so I figured I would sneak on to the blog and post- hence Sneak Attack . Tusk's surgery went well. He definately needs constant supervision for now, he can't even stand up or lay down on his own, so I am trying to anticipate the need for either. I will hopefully get a couple pictures up but I warn you, it is pitiful! I hope I don't have to stay here too long. He's got his checkup on Mon. and I'm sure he'll be able to get up/down tomorrow when the drugs wear off. Bess, give Dizzy a big kiss from me, then give yourself a big hug and kiss for me....(don't worry, nobody's watching)- I Love You. Thanks everyone for your continued prayers and support.

Friday

Hi everybody. Andrew is doing pretty well today. He weighed in this morning at 3.97 kg (about 8 lbs 12 oz). He does have a bit of a cough & is a little fussy. I'm hoping he's not sick. He had some 'congestion' on his last chest x-ray & the respiratory therapists have been doing some chest PT to help break it up so I am hoping that's what it is & it's clearing out. We'll see. All his numbers are still looking good though.
Tusk's surgery went well this morning. Steve's going to pick him up around 5pm then stay with him the weekend to nurse him :)
Thank you all so much for the support & prayers. Right now I think my biggest prayer is to keep Andrew healthy. That way he can keep making foward progress & be healthy enough to have his stomach surgery & recover well from that. I also pray for all of you; that you will experience true spiritual blessing in sharing in this journey with us.

Thursday evening

So here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure. They were taken this morning. Andrew has had an uneventful day. It's been great. He is playing with Daddy as much as he can right now in his sleepy state. Yes he is still making all kinds of cute noises. His voice was a bit hoarse yesterday, but it is much better today. Tonight Steve is going back home to stay a couple days with Tuskers who is having knee surgery tomorrow. Hopefully that will all go smoothly, though I don't like to be away from Steve (most of you know what a baby i am about that) but it's for a good cause. Tusk really is a great dog. The vet told steve she thinks he's one of the best dogs they see in their practice - health & behavior wise. A mom's got to brag, right? I'll do my best to keep up with the blog while Steve is gone, using the computers at the Ronald McDonald House - so no pictures / videos, sorry.

a good day

Well shame on us for not having the cameras with us. I was surprised to be able to come in & see Andrew only 30-45 minutes after speaking with the doctor in the waiting room. I was even more surprised to find Andrew awake & squirming around as if nothing had happened. They were able to extubate him right away & he dosn't have any extra 'lines'. He looks great! We took a picture with Steve's phone that we will post later. Now he just needs to settle humself down & go to sleep. He's been awake a good deal of the day. They will start his feeding tube back up this evening. It is possible that Andrew will have his stomach surgery sometime next week. We will let you all know if & when as soon as we find out.

Cardiac Cath complete

The doctor just came in & told us the cath is complete & went well. They didn't find anything major to explain Andrew's continued fragile condition. Excellent news is that his pulmonary veins still look pretty good, which was a major concern. There was some stenosis (narrowing) at one end of his shunt, but it will likely support him until his 2nd phase surgery. It is likely that they will push his next open heart surgery up as much as possible instead of waiting until he's around 4-6 months old. The team will discuss the results as a whole to decide if an interim surgery is necessary - we hope not - it dosn't seem too likely if they decide to do the 2nd phase surgery ASAP & if Andrew maintains a 'steady' course until then. Please continue to keep Andrew in your prayers. It's very important for him to stay healthy as he just dosn't have the reserves to keep his body going & fight an infection. We thank God that He has preserved our precious boy this far & have faith that He will complete the work He has begun in His Andrew.

Wednesday afternoon

Hey Ya'll, sorry for the late update. We were just waiting to see if Dizzy was going to get the cath today before we posted... He went back @11:30 and the Doc said it would be about 3 hrs. So, we are just waiting up here in the waiting room. He looked really good this morning, and he did gain weight last night, though the final number is yet to be determined. I guess that's really it for now. Just keep praying for our boy and we will update as soon as we hear something. Thanks to all.

Tuesday evening

Sorry it took so long to blog today. Steve went home to do some work & I was too busy hanging out with Andrew. The cardiac cath is scheduled for tomorrow around 11am, but there is a chance it will have to be put off until Thursday due to technical issues with the cath lab. We will let you know. Andrew wasn't able to tolerate further weining of the narcotic / anti-anxiety meds, which is a bit of a bummer, but he was pretty agitated before they reajusted it & the poor kid just dosn't have the reserves to be too upset. He gained a little more weight, up to 3.84 kg, this morning. Also, he's still the cutest thing ever.
On another note, our eldest, Tusk (our 2-year old Rottweiller) also needs surgery. Knee surgery for him. It's scheduled for this friday. Also, please add our Grandma Dottie to your prayer list. She just isn't doing so hot. Thank you for your continued prayers for Andrew. At this point it looks like he will probably be in the hospital until after he has his next heart surgery in a few months. We can't tell you how much it means to have such a wonderful support system in you all. We are so blessed!

Monday

Quick update. Andrew is still doing about the same. He weighs 8 lbs 6 ozs now. 3.81 kg this morning. It was a little higher a couple days ago, but that was a huge jump from the day before, so we think something else might have snuck its way in the bed with him when he was weighed. So his weight is still steadly increasing - hurray! They also stopped the antibiotics as the cultures came back negative - also hurray! AND he has been tolerating the weaning off of pain & sedative medications & could possibly be off of them altogether sometime this week - hurray again! They are looking at taking him for the cardiac cath on Wednesday. We will let you know details as we get them. Thanks for your continued support. Please pray for a good report from the cath on Wednesday.

Superbowl Sunday

Steve & I are up in Andrew's room sharing with him in his first superbowl. He dosn't seem too impressed; he's pretty much been sleeping through most of it with occasional breaks to play with mommy & daddy. I think his favorite part was mommy singing with Tom Petty to him (he was awake for that part). He had another good day today, which we love to see. We enjoyed visits today from Grammy Dawn & our friends John, Sara & Kira (thanks for the Cheescake Factory, we had never been before - what a treat!). It's always great to have time to visit & we love to share our little cutie pie. Thanks also to Christy, Nimish & Tony for the habachi (yes, again. Steve can't get enough) last night. Andrew enjoyed hanging out with a minor for a change - Tony had him smiling so big, he was showing all his gums. So cute! We also want to send out a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Emily Murphy. I can't believe you are 23! We love you all and feel so blessed to have the amazing support you provide us. Thank you!

check out those cheeks!

Vid1

Saturday Afternoon

We are up here with Dizzy, I just shot some video which I will put up post haste... He is sleeping soundly (when Bess leaves him alone) and getting rested. He has a bit of a week ahead of him. Ok, well I will start the download. Teresa, this is going to take @ 20 minutes.... take a break, go get some fresh air, help my bro with his knee...... etc :)

Saturday night's alright (for fighting)

Hello. Steve & I are up here with Andrew. He looks good today. We both had a good time playing with him this morning before he fell asleep. He had another echocardiogram the day before yesterday & we got the results last evening. They are concerned there may be obstruction at the shunt & pulmonary veins / arteries. This was a real bummer. On Monday they will discuss doing another cardio cath to determine if there is in fact any obstruction and to what extent. Obstruction could be caused by scar tissue building up or it could be that the vessels are simply not growing with the rest of him. It is possible to do some 'correction' during the cardio cath with the shunt or arteries, but the veins are more delicate & are usually worked on in surgery. I know you will all keep this in your prayers & we appreciate that immensly. If they decide to go ahead with the cath it will probably be early in the week. This will also put off the G-I surgery since that isn't an urgent issue & Andrerw is tolerating his feeds through the n-j feeding tube well. He is up to 3.8 kg - whoo-hoo! We will try to get some video up for you all a little later.

Friday, I'm in love

I don't think I've ever heard the song by the Cure, Friday I'm in love, but the statement fits anyway. Andrew had a pretty big morning this morning. He got the EEG off (he didn't look so much like a mummy this time), which the neurologist didn't see any seizure activity on. Thank you, Jesus! We are still waiting for the final results from the MRI, but given the EEG results at this point even if there is something there structurally (which the MRI would show) the neurologist feels the prognosis is good. The doctor put in a new central line early this afternoon because the peripheral lines are not lasting very long in his tiny little veins. Also, they will need a central line for his next surgery anyway which is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday. Andrew has continued to put weight on, which is excellent because this will help the blood flow with his shunt. He is still pretty fragile at this point though, so keep those strength prayers going. They also sent off another blood culture because his white blood count was up a little, so we are also praying against infection which is a continual risk just from being in the hospital.
Thank you all so much for the love and prayers you have lifted on Andrew's behalf. I am continually amazed at how many people we hardly know or don't know at all who are sharing in this journey with us, not to mention the great family and friends we have. We are truely blessed! God bless you all!