Dates on my calendar

Maelyn had her weekly cardiology appointment on Monday. Micah needed more blood work done so we went early and got the blood drawn and ate breakfast at the hospital. Thankfully, Tim was able to come and help. I just got the results back and his triglycerides are getting better! That means the corn starch is working. Hopefully we wont have to increase it, but as of right now there is no end in sight for the 2 am corn starch. 

Maelyn's appointment went well. She is still gaining weight really well! More than an ounce a day. She is ready for surgery, but if her oxygen level can stay up, everyone wants her to be 4 months old for it. Her nurse gave her a developmental assessment and she passed with flying colors. She seems like a perfectly normal 3 month old baby. Praise God! We are hoping that her eating, gaining weight and developing so incredibly well is an indicator that she will do well recovering from surgery. 

Surgery is scheduled for October 1. We will need to check into the hospital the day before. I think we are expecting to be in the hospital a full week. Maybe more maybe less. My parents are planning on coming to stay with the boys.  If you are interested in what the surgery will be doing, look up information on the Glenn Procedure, it is also called the hemi-fontan. In a quick google search for you this is the best I could find. http://www.childrensheartclinic.org/procedureillustrations/bdg.pdf Her heart anatomy is different than the picture but the rearranging of arteries will essentially be the same. 

I also scheduled Maeyn's chest MRI. I really like the Children's Hospital of Colorado, with the exception of the scheduling process. But it is scheduled. The MRI will be one week from today, on the 8th. Maelyn will be put under anesthesia and will have to have a breathing tube placed for the procedure. It is supposed to be an outpatient procedure but they say to have an over night bag ready just in case. You never know how she will come out of anesthesia or how she will recover from the breathing tube. I think the plan is for Tim to take her there (since she will have to be fasting and me holding her would just be torture for the both of us) and then I'll come later with the boys and we will switch places so that I can be there to feed her when she is able to eat again. Tim will take the boys home, while I am at the hospital with Maelyn. 

I'm having mixed emotions about these dates on my calendar. I thought I was feeling ready for all of this, but it being written there, staring at me, is just weird. And it just hit me how soon it will be. I am trying to remind myself that by Christmas she should be fine and that is what we want. We just have to get there. Once surgery is over and she is recovered we wont be constantly checking her oxygen or worrying about when we will be having surgery. She should be fine until her next surgery when she is 2 years old. I'm trying to not let myself think about all of the possible complications and set backs that she could encounter, but sometimes it's hard. And I'm trying to find a balance between what to expect to happen and what to consider might happen. I can ask all the questions but there are really no answers because Maelyn is her own unique self. There is no way to know for sure what the outcome of her surgery will be. We are trying to trust that God will continue to do good things for her and keep her healthy and safe.  

Please continue to pray for her! Pray for her oxygen and health to be great for these next few weeks. Pray for her MRI, that she would handle the anesthesia and breathing tube well and would recover quickly. Pray for her feeding ability. Pray for her surgical team in advance. Pray that God would be her healer and sustainer. Pray that God would be glorified through all of this. 

All of my recent smiley pictures of her are blurry because she's so active!