Our Brave Little Man

Today Parker underwent his third cardiac catheterization . This time around we thought we would take pictures of the day as it progressed...

6:45am - On the way to Brenner Children's Hospital.

7:00am - Playing on the big boat in the waiting area.

7:10am - In the holding room.

7:30am - Starting to get a little scared.

8:00am - The sedative turned Parker into a giggle box!

8:30am - Asleep and time for us to say goodbye.

By 9:30am Parker was under full anesthesia, prepped, and ready for the procedure. The procedure went well with no complications and they were finished by 10:40am. Dr. Williams came to the waiting room to discuss the results which were the same as last year. His pulmonary pressures have not gotten any better, but they have not worsened either. That's good news as far as we're concerned! His pulmonary hypertension is still considered severe, but he is doing extraordinarily well and he is stable on his medications. Dr. Williams was happy with the procedure and the results, as are we. By 11:00am he was in the post-op recovery where the nurses praised him as being the best patient they'd ever had! They all fell in love with him, but honestly it's hard not too :)

By 12:00pm we were moved to a room on the 6th floor of Brenner's where Parker had to lay flat for 6 hours. He got to watch movies, sip juice, and eat Cheetos while we waited out the afternoon.

At 3:00pm Dr. Williams came in to check on him and decided we could go home! Parker is such a brave little boy who has been through so much in his short life. We love him so much and are so grateful Heavenly Father has blessed us with the opportunity to be his parents. We are extremely grateful today that he was blessed with the strength to make it through the heart catheterization. We know that many of you have been praying for him and we are so grateful for you. We truly felt your prayers today. Indeed, we have been granted another miracle!

Parker Update

I'm sitting in the hospital with our sweet Parker and so far he is recovering just fine from the cardiac catheterization. He's still pretty groggy but he's awake and in good spirits. Right now he is watching "Alvin and the Chipmunks" and sipping some apple juice. He has to lay flat for 6 hours, so we'll be here until early this evening. At that point, if he's doing well enough, we may be able to take him home. Thank you to all of you for your many prayers--we are so grateful for your continued love and support. We'll update more later...

Praying for Good Things to Come

Next Friday, June 25, 2010, Parker will undergo his third cardiac catheterization. As many of you know, this is something that we have dreaded doing each year since his first cardiac catheterization in April 2008, which was a very scary and traumatic experience for all of us. However, many things have changed since then and Parker did extremely well with his last cardiac catheterization in June 2009. We are very nervous, but optimistic that this procedure will go just as well, if not better, than last year. Parker's PH has remained stable for the past 2 years, which is great. Through this procedure next week, his cardiologist will be able to determine if the PH is the same, worse, or better than last year. We are obviously hoping for the same or better. Regardless of the results, we know that Heavenly Father is watching out for Parker and we know He will give Parker the strength that he needs to get through this test. So, at this time, we are praying for good things to come and we would like to ask for your prayers too--please pray for Parker! We will be having a special fast for him on Sunday, June 20th. We invite anyone who feels inclined to participate in this fast. We are so grateful for each of you and the incredible love and support that we receive from you. We know that we will all be blessed as we fast and pray in faith. We have seen many miracles come to pass in the last 2 years and we hope, with your help, we can be granted another one.

Bye, bye tooth!

When Connor was 3 years old, something happened to his right front tooth (the dentist called it tooth E...). We don't remember if he hit it on something or what--his tooth turned gray for a few months, but we didn't do anything about it and after a while it tuned back to the normal color. Well, a few weeks ago Connor woke up saying his tooth hurt. The gum above tooth E was red, but didn't look unusual, so I went ahead and sent him to school. A few hours later, the school called and said that Connor's tooth was really bothering him so I went and picked him up. By this time, his gum above the tooth was very swollen with a weird gray spot that look like some kind of blister and it was painful. I called the dentist and we made an appointment for the next morning. Over the next hour, the gum swelled even more, so I called the dentist back and they agreed to see him then. They took an x-ray, examined the tooth and gave Connor antibiotics for 10 days. The dentist said that it was one of two things: the tooth is slightly loose, so sometimes food, like a popcorn kernel gets stuck under the gum and causes an infection, or because of the trauma the tooth experienced when he was 3, the tissue inside could be dead, causing infection. He said if it didn't look much better in 2 weeks, he would probably have to remove it. Yesterday, Connor visited the dentist again. They did another x-ray, examined the tooth and decided that it did indeed need to come out. His gum above the tooth was still a little red and slightly swollen and the x-ray showed that the tooth was changing inside. So after some serious numbing, the dentist took something that looked a lot like a wrench and pulled his tooth right out! Connor was very brave and excited that the tooth fairy would be making a visit. Unfortunately, the dentist said the permanent tooth may not come in for 6 months! Oh well, we'll just have to start calling him toothless Connor!

Memorial Day Fun

On Memorial Day we decided to head to Tanglewood Park early because it was supposed to rain in the afternoon. We had a great time climbing and exploring the train, playing on both playgrounds and cruising Mallard Lake on a paddle boat. We saw turtles and ducks as we went along in the water. It was a perfect outing--we even managed to make it to the van mere seconds before the rain started pouring down!

Catching Up

It's been a busy couple of weeks around here and so I thought I would give a little run down of what's been going on...

The first two weeks of May, Connor and Parker were both really sick with terrible coughs and runny noses. They shared the sickness with me on Mother's Day and then a few days later with Jason. Connor added a few more days of missed school bringing his total days absent to 20 (he really was sick all those days)!!! Parker scared us while he was sick because he was having a hard time keeping his oxygen saturation at a normal level and he kept having coughing spells where he would cough so hard he would gag and have a hard time breathing. He had a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia and it was fine, thank goodness, but whatever it was, it really threw him for a loop--he hasn't been that sick for over a year. It took him about 3 weeks to get back to normal.

Connor played soccer again this year, however he missed half of the games while he was sick and the games he did play he kept volunteering to be the sub that sits out! I kept reminding him that we were there to play soccer, not sit out, but he said sitting out was fun... Needless to say, he really didn't play much, but he still had fun and got a trophy so that's all that matters, right?

In 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade in North Carolina they have "end of grade" tests or EOG's for short. The students work hard all year learning the information that they will be tested on and they have to receive a score of 3 or 4 to pass and move on to the next grade. I suppose they do similar testing in other states as well. Anyway, Kelsey worked really hard and was really, really nervous. We weren't worried because she is such a smart and intelligent girl and she does extremely well in school. They had 3 tests, 1 reading comprehension, and 2 separate math tests (1 with a calculator and 1 without)--she scored 4 on all 3 tests! We are so proud of her! She performed with the 3rd grade in a short musical last week and they did a nice job. She also started coach pitch baseball, which will continue for the rest of the summer.

This month Jason and I were finally able to use some of our respite hours (additional hours of nursing care for Parker, separate from his regular weekly hours) to go to the temple in Raleigh. It was wonderful to have that time together and be able to serve the Lord at the same time! We also were able to go on a date for Jason's birthday--we realized it's been years since we've officially been on a date for one of our birthdays. Once again, it was great to have that time together. Hopefully, we will be able to continue to take advantage of the respite hours for more dates and temple trips!

I spent a good part of the month working on my new business, Part of Me Pump Packs (I'm making and selling the IV backpacks that I designed for Parker). I received my first online order last week which was really exciting and I also received 3 orders from somebody here locally. Not too bad for my first month! I have worked a lot on my website adding some videos of how to put the pump pack on and how to anchor the IV tubing. I hope they are helpful for the people that need them--I know they would have been helpful for us when we were starting out with Parker's IV care. It has been a new adventure for me and it has been very gratifying to help someone else who is going through the same things that we have been through.

So, that's about it for May! I can hardly believe the kids are almost finished with school and summer is here. June is already filling up--it looks like a busy couple of months ahead!!!