Ady's Birthday and Brock's Checkup

Although most thought she was turning 4,(it must be the long hair) Ady had her 3rd Birthday! She loved having her relative friends come and help eat her Nemo cake(just in case you couldn't tell what it was). Yes, I attempted to be domestic and make Ady a cake. It's a good thing my mom, who is artistic, helped out or it would have been a big whale-ish looking orange and white blob.

After singing the cutest version of "Birthday to You" to herself, and trying to blow out all 3 candles at once several times and never quite making it, she opened her present. If you can’t tell by her face in the picture she was more than ecstatic to get a pink unicorn stick horse. They were selling them at our hometown grocery store and every time we walked past them, Ady had to stop and pet the pink horses and since we could not pry her away easily, she would usually end up there the whole time while we got our groceries. It even makes horse noises and plays the Lone Ranger song. We already are hoping the battery dies soon. Happy Birthday Ady!

Brock had his check-up with the Cardiologist. It was good, good, and not so good. First he got to get rid of the oxygen! No more heavy tank to carry and tubes up the nose! Also his right ventricle has become less thick and is not clamping together every time the heart beats. However his gradient pressure from the ventricle thru the pulmonary valve has gone up since we left the hospital 2 weeks ago from a 36 to a 50. Below 10 is normal. The doctor said this was moderate and that we should keep a close watch on him. If it continues to get worse, into the high 60's low 70's we will be looking at doing another surgery to open the pulmonary valve more because it is still only opening part way. If it stays the same then they will just keep monitoring him. Hopefully it gets better. We will continue to pray it does and would be very grateful for anyone else to pray with us.

Not that having any type of heart condition is good at all, but on the scale of heart conditions, Pulmonary Valve Stenosis is on the lower range of severity. Yes, it is a critical condition, but it is something that is treatable in today’s world of advanced medical science. The surgery Brock received was invented in 1984. Actually it was pioneered at Primary Children’s. And I thought having epidurals was reason enough to live in the 20^th century, but having our little boy survive more than trumps any other reason.

As we were talking with one of the nurses about all the possible things that could go wrong with just the heart developing, if you take that and add in all the body and its many, many parts, it is almost amazing that babies are ever born completely healthy. But more often than not, that is the case. Our bodies really are amazing. This experience has really strengthened my knowledge and I’ve felt a stronger testimony that God lives and is over all. Thanks again for all your prayers and support. It is truly felt.

P.S. Adam has been in Minnesota, so I’ve been driving around a lot lately. I realized I really haven’t driven much at all and especially not on the freeway since Hawaii. (being pregnant I always made Adam drive) As I first got on the Freeway I thought I was driving pretty fast, but I noticed a LOT of cars passing me. I looked down to notice I was going about 45 MPH on the 70 MPH Freeway. So I sped up, and felt like a rocket! I am still way too used to Hawaii highway speed limits.