2pm update

Just heard from the cath lab. E is still tolerating everything well. The doctor is taking pictures and pressures. Part of the procedure involves piercing the heart wall between the right atrium into the left atrium to get a reading of the pressure in the left atrium. This hasn't happened yet. The doctor is preparing to do this now. Please pray this goes uneventfully.

The piecing is akin to piercing your vein when you have blood drawn. It should heal before the procedure is over.

During the procedure, E is lying on a table with her arms over her head (all in a line). Every two hours they have to exercise her arms so that there are no injuries from having her arms in one position for too long. I imagine that they are doing that as well around this time. They also keep a warm blanket on her to keep her warm.

We'll hear from the cath lab in an hour.

J & T

Our AM

We woke E up at 1130 last night to have some 'breakfast'. After a big bowl of cheerios E and her daddy shared a bowl of ice cream-yum!
Z woke up at 5Am ready to go while the rest of us tried to sleep in. Mom got up and gave him some breakfast- the only one in the house who got breakfast this AM before we got on the road.
Z was unhappy to be dropped off at daycare.
We got to TCH and headed to Cardiology. E changed into her hospital gown and showed it off to the pre-op suite. We again met with the childlife specialist who talked with E (and us) about the cath.

We then met the anesthesiologist and anesthetist who then gave E some Versed syrup to drink.
The Versed was pretty bitter so she gave her some cherry syrup to chase it down.

And 15 min. later we a loopy, happy daughter on a sugar high- laughing and tickling us with reckless abandon. She was smiling and waving as she went off into the cath lab. The cath cardiologist talked to us to tell us what he was going to do and what he expected. After that we needed some lunch.
Just now we heard from the cath lab telling us they are about to start the actual catheterization after getting everything set. We were told E did very well and went right to sleep- what?! This girl usually needs 3 books and a told story to go to sleep @ home- good for them!

We are in the Ronald McDonald house lounge on the cardiac floor. This is a beautiful lounge for the families. We should hear again from the cath lab in an hour. . .
T

My Sunday Night

Sunday night update: Tonight we went to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner. E ate like a horse. She was in excellent spirits. My mom was with us tonight at dinner and Emily told her all about her trip to the hospital tomorrow.

E is very excited about the fact that she gets to wake up in the middle of the night tonight and eat breakfast since she isn't allowed to eat after midnight tonight. She is only allowed to drink apple juice and water until 8am. So T and I are staying up late and we'll wake E up around 11:30pm to have breakfast or whatever it is that she wants to eat.

We're all packed for tomorrow. We want to thank everyone for their response to our email. We printed out each response and are taking them with us tomorrow as a physical reminder of your thoughts and prayers.

The general schedule for tomorrow:

8am: depart and drop Z off at school, head to the hospital
10am: check in, pre-op
11:30-noon(?): get started?
2pm-3pm (?): be done with the procedure
4-6 hours in recovery
Go home

But as my good friend tells me, I don't get to hold the map. God does. So it is out of my hands. We just have to roll with it and let E lead the way.

We'll see if we can update our blog from the hospital. xo to all.

My Day at the It's My Heart Walk

Today we spent the day at the It's My Heart Annual Walk. Thank you to all my family and friends who make a donation in my name to support this great organization that supports all of the following:

• Children who are undergoing surgery for congenital heart defects
• Families who are supporting those children both in and out of the hospital
• The great doctors, nurses and staff who help the families and children affected by CHD
• The researchers and geneticists who are working to find a cure for CHD

Here are some photos of today. The festival that followed the walk was great. The kids jumped in the bounce houses and got to say hello to Spongebob and Elmo. T got his hair painted green and we all ate Chick-Fil-A!

Here is a photos just before we started the walk.

Here are the walkers. If you look closely, you can see under the bridge, even more walkers.

E and Z holding hands during the walk. So cute.

T right after he got his hair painted. E got her hair painted with silver glitter. When we got home after the walk, T went to the recycling center and forgot his hair was green. He wondered why everyone was staring at him!

E poses with "Arty" the It's My Heart mascot.

My Halloween 2008

October first kicks off my most favorite time of the year. October, November and December are so much fun. Halloween, followed by Thanksgiving, followed by Christmas are just so much fun. And once you add children to the mix it gets even better.

Our church has a pumpkin patch each year. It is a wonderful time to hang out and play. This year, T and I volunteered in there to sell the pumpkins. It is lite duty. Just collect money from the folks who come by to buy pumpkins. We brought the kids and they could run around while we sat around and hung out. As you can see, we had lots of fun.

Later in the month we played at our monthly poker party. Since it was October, it was a costume party.

Finally, it was time for the actual day of Halloween. The kid were so excited. E was going to be Spiderman, for the second year in a row. Z, in theory, was going to be a dragon. But when it came time to put the costume on, he didn't want to wear it. So we settled for his homemade Halloween shirt. Here, the kids are getting ready to trick or treat.

The kids really loved trick or treating. Luckily they are still little and they really only have the stamina to do our block and our neighbor's block. Some older kids come by and they have a pillowcase filled with candy that must weight ten pounds!

My Seaworld

In October, we took our annual trip to Seaworld. We love going here. I really don't know who loves it more, the parents or the children. And of course this trip was very special, because this was the first time that Z came.

One of T's favorite things to do at Seaworld is feed the dolphins. It is the first thing we do when we walk through the gate. Enter gate, proceed to the left, purchase fish and feed the dolphins. You have to get there early to do it because sometimes they run out of fish. We've actually had people approach us and ask to buy our fish. You can see Z in T's arms. Z is not as excited as T is about feeding the dolphins.





E was excited about watching us feed the dolphins. She didn't really want to feed them.




Then it was off the the aquarium to check out more fish, some sharks, sea horses, lobsters, craw fish, etc. Lots of great fun.

Then, of course, for the big show. Shamu. I'm such a big softie. I actually start to get all teary when I go to these types of things because I get so happy watching my kids have so much fun.

You can see how in to it they are. E in particular in this picture. She is totally into watching the whales perform.

I love this photo.

Here we are at the seal and walrus show. They have the same show every time. And we come to watch it every time. It is a bit of a caper. Very cute. But this time was quite funny because one of the seals wouldn't do what he was supposed to do and the show couldn't quite move forward until he did it. The live actors just went with it and we all laughed. The 30 minute show ended up being about 15 because of it all. Great fun.

The photo of this walrus doesn't really do it justice. He is HUGH!

Seaworld has a playground area. In all our previous visits, we had never been in there. But this trip, we ventured there to see what it was all about. it was quite fun. In this photo, T and E are across the way and Z and I are on a ship. All the areas are connected by rope tunnels. It is quite scary as you have to crawl through the tunnels to get from place to place. The tunnels are two to three stories up. The kids don't mind at all. The adults are frightened!

Here is a very happy little man.

Here is one of those cute little rides that go round and round. I was brave enough to try one out with my kids. I wasn't sure how Z would behave on it, seeing that we were about 20 feet in the air. Would he sit still? Would he get scared? He was fine. He thought it was a blast!

And this is actually the funniest of them all. This is a water ride called Atlantis. This is the splash area. People can wait here and get splashed when the ride comes barreling down. Well, I was on the ride and E convinced T that this was a "safe" area to stay. Note the wet ground. Well, T got the surprise of his life when he got soaked as the ride came down and sprayed him. It was quite funny to come off the ride and see them both soaked.

My October

Well, as usual, my post starts out with an apology for being so delinquent in posting. Here is what happened in late September and October.


I went to Florida for the funeral of my uncle. While there, my other uncle, my dad and I stopped at a restaurant to have lunch that was across from the beach. So we stopped to take a look and saw a man using a metal detector. Every now and then he'd stop and wait for the waves to retreat and dig something up. Nothing big enough for us to see.

After E's late September cardiology appointment, T and I took her to the zoo. There are a few photos of her that I think are "super model" worthy. Of course, I feel this way, I am her mother.

This is one of the photos.

This is another one of them.

Here is a cute one of the two of them on the merri-go-round. Notice she still has her hospital band still on.

After the hurricane, we piled our debris at the foot of our driveway, just like all the other neighbors. We were told that it could be up to six months until FEMA came to take it away. Our regular recycling folks weren't able to pick it up. Luckily it was just a few weeks until this huge crane came by one day with a huge truck to haul it away. Of course we took pictures. Unfortunately, the one person who is absolutely crazy about trucks in our family was taking a nap, Mr. Z.

We also took time out of our October to celebrate J's first birthday!

He had wonderful weather for his birthday. The kids took turns beating a pinata in the back yard. Notice, E's hair a-flying.

Once it broke, all the kids scattered to grab the candy.

Z grabbed some too.

E also performed with the children's choir at church.

Later that month we found a small lizard in our front hall. Miss adventurous grabbed it by the tail and took it outside. Note the devilish grin.

She giggled heaps when the tail broke off and still flipped around on the floor of our hall.

Back to the zoo we went in October with both kids and my mom. We love the meercats. Or "meerchats" as Z calls them. I love the pose this one is striking.

Another supermodel pose.

Z and E were enthralled with the zoo keeper who was giving a demonstration on a particular bird.

The nest sitters had lots of fun that day, but sure were pooped by the end of the day.

Towards the end of the month we went to our congenital heart defects support group's fund raiser carnival. The kids had a great time!

T entered a pie eating contest. He didn't win, but had a great time!

E got her face painted and hair sprayed.

Later that day we made a skeleton out of old milk jugs as Halloween was rapidly approaching.