Wednesday, April 30, 2008

To all our sweet friends, Let's get you all caught up on our day. Overall, we feel like today went well. We went on our tour of Children's and it was nice to see where we will be during all of this. Our fetal echo went well, they were not all that concerned about the arrythmia that she has every now and then. They didn't seem all that suprised that she was having the beats...we will just need to watch her more closely now. The cardiologist kept saying that her heart "looked good" and he was pleased with her growth and activity. They don't want to see us again unless Dr. Mcgee finds something new or thinks she isn't tolerating her heart rhythm. If all continues to look good, then I won't need to return to Children's until she is born. We met with our surgeon, Dr. Forbess, and he is awesome. We really like him. He drew out some pictures and showed us exactly what he will do in the first surgery if her diagnosis stays the same between now and then. He answered all of our questions and seemed to have good reasoning for all of them. He was extremely upbeat and positive, yet was able to prepare us for some potential complications and risk percentages. He was able to back up all the percentages with reasoning and explanation. Thank you again for all of your prayers, emails, and thoughts. It really does bring us comfort with each and every one of you who responds and tells us how you are praying. We know our sweet baby girl is covered in prayer from so many of you. It's amazing to hear from those of you I see every week and then also to hear from you all that I haven't seen in years. We are humbled by your encouragement and outpouring of love. Please continue praying...we have a long way to go. Thank you again...words cannot express our gratitude for your all going before our God on behalf of our child. We Love You all - Corey and Lisa

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Hey everyone, I wanted to give you all an update on our baby girl's progress. We had a disappointing setback today. I went in for my regular OB checkup and our Dr was able to pick up an irregular heartbeat when she listened. She then did a sonogram which showed an irregular beat every now and then. She immediately sent me to see the high risk perinatologist (the doctor who picked up on her heart defect originally) and he did another specialized sonogram. He was able to tell that she was throwing a PAC (premature atrial contraction or extra heart beat) about every 20th beat or so. He looked at the rest of her and she still looks good. She's growing and not showing any signs of compromise from the heart arrythmia. He then went back to her heart and she started throwing these beats much more frequently - about every third to fifth beat. He grew much more concerned as we watched her do this for a few minutes. He called the cardiologist at Children's and they were mildly concerned about this. They say that if she didn't already have a compromised cardiac condition this would not be concerning. As long as she's able to sustain the irregular beats without it effecting her growth or circulation we're okay. So....instead of going to Children's for our work up at 30 weeks, we're going tomorrow. We will tour the ICU and everything, have another fetal echo, and then meet Dr Forbess, our surgeon. The cardiologist wanted to get a baseline look at what exactly it is her heart is doing, plus look at her anatomy and cardiac structure now that she's bigger. We're begging again for your constant, urgent, and bold prayers on our baby's behalf. We continue to believe that God is in complete control here and he will not leave us. We know he continues to love us and our sweet baby girl. Thank you again for the encouragement and love you all have shown our family in the last few months.