Daddy's Message

Lance is having a good day. They are beginning to ween off some of the meds and so far his body has tolerated it. I am hoping they will ween him from the ventilator tomorrow. He is awake a little more today but very upset about the tube in his throat. The doctors say ware headed in the right direction so, we are feeling a little relief today.

Back to scratchin

I spoke to the nurse (Dr's still making rounds, can't get back there yet)and she said that he is scratching up a storm which is what Lance does to pass time in the hospital. She said they are weening him off of a few things today and maybe his ventilator(we will cross our fingers for that one)His blood pressure is where they want it. Which was MUSIC to our ears early this morning. Good start to a Good Day!!!!!!!

Not Out Of The Woods Yet!

He is doing well. One step at a time. Blood pressure is back on track, but as the great surgeon loves to tell me "We are not out of the woods yet". I really need to ask him to describe the woods to me. A nurse today told me, when we leave to hand him a branch and say "We are finally out of the woods".We literally are learning to take it one day at a time. We will gladly do any and everything to get him where he needs to be. We had a great dinner with lots of family tonight and it really did the "regular crew " good to have such good company. We have enjoyed all our visitors and they have all seemed to come at just the right time.

Another bump, but back on track

He had issues with his blood pressure being low this morning, but we found the trick to get it where it needed to be. This is going to be a road of patience and taking the good with bad. We were just so ready to be able to just have a day where our stomachs weren't in knots. Things are looking good and Thanks for ALL the encouraging words and support.

He is out of surgery

He is out of surgery and the repair went well. His heart function is better and the obstruction is relieved, so are we. We are hopeful his kidneys get back on track. This is hopefully the end to the surgeries for a long time. While he was in the cath lab they did a biopsy and it came back that he is having no rejection to his new heart. That is good news!!We just got back from seeing him and he looks GREAT!!!! His color is so good, and he is peeing YEAH!!!!!! Everything is looking positive and we pray it stays that way!

Another surgery

His aorta is narrowed, so they are going back in around 5:00p.m. to try to repair this restriction. The surgery will last about 3-4 hours. PRAYERS are needed. We are trying to stay strong, but we are really weak and not sure how much more we can handle. Will this pain ever end and let our boy have a normal life again.

CICU

He is back in CICU and his heart his doing well, he doesn't have the buddha belly anymore. He looks really good,they are going to keep him sedated today and let him start waking up tomorrow. We are definetly heading in the right direction!!

STILL WAITING

The heart is in and they said things are looking good. They will call in an hour with an update.

THE BIG DAY!

It is 1:00am and we are waiting for this to be over and have our baby safe and sound and back with us. They said the heart was good and were proceeding with the transplant. It will be a long night but I do have a calm about it that it will all be fine. I know this is what has to be done. He was not healthy and could not continue the way he was. Please let him be fine, he is such a sweet boy and has to be with us. Hopefully he will be through around 5:00 or 6:00am. We love you Lance!!!!

Looks like dehydration

His lab work is leaning towards dehydration and hopefully this is a mixture of his bad cold, him not being to fond of his "Fat Free diet",and a combination of some of his meds aggravating things more. We are hopeful it is that and we can get him back on the right track. The doctor did say that his BNP was a little elevated and this can indicate heart trouble, but it is not so high that she feels it is something to be overly concerned with at this point. I am going to pray that it is the lesser of the two and he will get his fluids in and pee on his own. The doctor did say that she would check with the nutritionist and see if it is possible to add in more foods that he would want. Our thinking is that if he can have what he has been wanting for the last month he will chow down and get back to normal. Please, Please let it be this simple.

Not sure what to think

Today when I got home from work Grandma Judy let me know Lance had not been to the bathroom all day. After a call to The Sibley Heart Center we were on our way to Children's Health Care of Atlanta for what I was told would be some lab work. When we got there they told me Lance was a direct admit and was going straight to the cardiac stepdown unit. They did a chest x-ray and ran some lab work and still at this point no urine output. So at this point it has been over 24 hours since he has gone to the restroom. We just found out that they are going to put an IV with fluids and if he has not had any urine within a couple of hours they will put a cath in and try some other things. At this point we are not sure if this is a problem relating to his heart function. I will hopefully know more tomorrow.

Day Thirteen

It seems as though this nightmare is coming to a close. We have had so many ups and downs and I am so thankful for where we are. His chest tube drainage is really starting to slow down. The nurse just came in and told me that in the past three hours he only put out 10cc, and that is a BIG improvement from where we were. As soon as this stops we can go home. Lance has been a good sport through it all. He just got done with physical therapy where they played some soccer with some of the nurses in the hall. He has great strength, we just hope he gets back to his chatty ways. He has had plenty of visitors who helped bring his smile back. We had our rough times in the beginning with heart rythym issues and blood pressure problems but with medicine this was straightned out. One of the medicines didn't agree with him and for about a week he had to eat from an NG tube because he couldn't keep anything down. Needless to say, it was a happy day for all of us when he got his grilled cheese sandwich, he so wanted!!! When I look over this past two weeks I am so Thankful we are at the end of this journey. It was tough, but we have made it and I KNOW WE ARE SO MUCH STRONGER!!!! As many poeple have said this puts everything in prespective and it so did! I surely won't sweat the trivial things in life like I use to. We love our boys so much and can't wait to all be in our home together.

Update!!

Lance's surgery has been changed to April 17th. Aetna took over our FMLA area at work and you have to have worked at least 1250 hours in 12 months and I have worked 1003 hours in the past 12 months. They did tell me that I would be paid for my leave, but that the portion of the leave that protects your job, I was not qualified for due to my hours. So I talked to Dr. McConnell and he said no problem we can wait until April and then I would have enough hours. Getting paid doesn't do me any good if I get fired and don't have insurance. I am sure SunTrust wouldn't have let me go but in this economy, you can't be to careful. I know I am on over planner, but I get it from my Darling Mother. Things have been going well, my boys (all three of them) are so crazy and funny. I love them with all my heart and they all make me sooooo happy!!! I feel like a different person from one year ago today. I have learned how to handle things differently and to enjoy things as they come. Signing off for now

Getting ready for surgey day!

We just found out that Lance's surgery will be March 6, 2008. This surgery is called the "Fontan" we are not looking forward to this day, but we know it will be worth it in the end. He will have so much more energy and not have as many headaches as he is having now. Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers.

Our boys trying to be models!! Yes, there are several duplicates,there was a small mix-up at the factory..he.he!!

Heart Cath Day

The early morning of the cath 5:45am to be exact. Grandma Diane, Grandma Judy, and Granddaddy Lloyd all came to be by Lance's side and keep our minds off of what was happening. Then at 5:45 in the morning they tried to tell us they verified the wrong insurance and we would need to wait until 8:30am until they could talk to the insurance company. We were not going for that...so we went up to the cath Lab where they knew what they were doing and off we went for the cath. We didn't wake up 3:45am to sit in a waiting room because someone else can't do their job. O.K. enough of my pent up frustration. I am over it now. Stress, ya gotta love it!!!

Emory giving Lance a kiss of well wishes!!!

The hospital gave Lance a bear and he named him Wiggle Bottom Witt.

Lance waiting for them to take him back for the cath.

Emory kept himself busy while waiting for his brother to come out. "Are they done yet"

After the cath is complete.

Boy do I love chicken fingers swimming in ketchup. After this I get to go home. I think I will miss all the nurses that spoiled me rotten. But, hey isn't that the way it should be. Lance said he really liked the one that smiled all the time. I think he might have had a crush on Nurse Stephanie. I guess that is why he was so modest during the procedure.. he woke up mid way through and asked for them to put his underwear back on. They said when we get finished...now go back to sleep..and he did. We will wait until the cath conference to see when his surgery will be...hopefully not until Spring Break...I need my monkey to be in school. There's a lot to learn when you are 5. We are all doing well and Lance is not scared about the upcoming surgery because he had such a great experience while he was there.

We are going home!!!

After a long day and hardly any sleep the night before we are ready to go.

The day before the Cath

I think I have not really been accepting the fact of what is to come. Until, on my way to work this morning...I had to get on the phone with Mom and of course by the time I got off the phone I was crying my eyes out. It all the sudden hit me... what we are about to face... I think I was putting it out of my mind by staying busy. I talked to Celia and Sharon this morning and they calmed me down and that was a good thing because I was about to go home. I didn't think I could handle being here at work. They told me I was welcome to go home but It really would only give me more time to think of everything and was that really that best thing for me at this point. I stayed and I am doing just fine.

Two days before Lance's heart cath.

Lance will have his heart cath on 1/7/09. We hope to have more info about his upcoming surgery. He is a trooper and tries to act tough when daddy is around...then when he is talking to me he tells me he is O.K. with being tired and having headaches and doesn't mind if he just stays inside while everyone else plays outside. It is very hard to be strong...but we will for our Lancester Pancester.

Emory's 3rd grade school picture

Emory going for the Jonas Brothers look!!!