Happy 2nd birthday Brielle :)

Brielle celebrated her 2nd birthday on Friday! The night before, my husband helped me set up the party decorations. The house was quiet, both girls were asleep, and we just sat for a moment in the living room together looking up at the "Happy Birthday" banner. It was such a sweet moment. Two years ago we didn't know if we'd get the chance to celebrate this birthday with her, but now our lives are filled with so much joy and laughter because of her. And we are so thankful!

We just wanted everyone to know that Brielle is doing great! She's a beautiful and spunky little girl who loves life in spite of all the obstacles she's had to overcome. We thank God each day for the answered prayers, the comfort through the storms, and the hope of this little girl's bright future.

In the upcoming months there will be doctor appointments, procedures, etc. But we just take each day at a time and cherish every smile and giggle in between :)

Home!

Brielle is home!

Yay!

Scheduled to go home tomorrow!

Tuesday Night

Oxygen is off and pacing wires are out! Sleeping peacefully :)

Step Down Unit!

Sitting in the step down unit now with my baby girl! Chest tubes and IV are out! I have so much respect for this little one...she has had to endure so much and she still manages to smile :)

Update Monday Morning

Brielle is doing really well. Chest tubes are coming out later this afternoon, and we should be moving to the step down unit later too!

Surgery Update

Brielle is doing really well after her surgery. They'll be weaning everything down over the next couple of days. Thanks be to God :)

Heart Surgery Tomorrow

Well we are all set to go for Brielle's heart surgery tomorrow at 7:30AM! This will be her 3rd heart surgery, and it's an in-between surgery from her Glenn to her Fontan (which she will ultimately have when she is about 3.) I just want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their outpouring of love and prayers. It really means so much to us!

Update April 5th 2013

I just wanted to give everyone an update on Brielle. I spent all of Wednesday at Children's speaking with the heart surgeon and the neurosurgeon. So far we are still on target for the heart surgery on the 19th. This will remove the shunts that were placed during the last surgery,  and replace them with patches instead. The ultimate goal being to open those areas up for better blood flow, so that her oxygen levels go up to where they need to be. Also, to hopefully resolve the issues she was having with the increasing size of the ventricles in her brain.

Which brings me to my conversation with the neurosurgeon... basically Brielle had a stroke at some point around her first surgery (most likely during one of the two cardiac arrests). The blood left over from that, plus the poor circulation in her heart caused the fluid in the spaces of her brain to increase. The good news is, that improved some during the last little procedure they did with the cardiac cath. However, if she still has problems after this next surgery, they will probably have to go in and place a shunt (in her brain) to help drain the fluid better.

So we just really need this next surgery to go well and do what it's supposed to do. All this, while hoping that no complications happen from the surgery itself (and believe me there was quite an extensive list of possible complications.) But I know I serve an awesome God, and I really am thankful for all that He has already done for my sweet little girl. And I'm just going to have faith that He knows what He's doing. Thank you all again for all of the prayers.

Next Surgery

Brielle's next surgery has been scheduled for April 19th.

Surgery Update

This is just to update everyone that Brielle will be having another heart surgery sometime within the next month. I'll provide more details once I have them.

Home!

Brielle is finally home and seems so happy! It turns out the shunts from her 2nd surgery were severely narrowed, causing her oxygen levels to drop and the fluid in the ventricles of her brain to increase. So they did a cardiac cath procedure where they were able to balloon one shunt and implant a stent in the other. Everything was successful and she is doing so much better now! We're still going to be keeping an eye on her head circumference to make sure that there are no more problems with that. But so far so good! So glad to be home again!

Update Wednesday Afternoon

Just talked to the cardiologist and it turns out Brielle has some narrowing in one of her shunts. This is most likely the cause of her oxygen problems. The plan is still to do the cardiac cath tomorrow and take it from there.

MRI Update

Well we went in for Brielle's MRI yesterday. Unfortunately, after she came out of sedation, her oxygen levels remained low, so we stayed at the hospital over night. The plan is to do a cardiac cath and an echo tomorrow to try to figure out what's causing this, but in the meantime Brielle seems like her happy little self. We did get the results of the MRI back, and the next step is to talk to a neurologist. I'll give an update then, because as of right now I'm not really sure what the results mean, other than there are a few things we need to keep an eye on. So right now we are home to gather a few things and we'll be heading back down there later. I'll try to give updates as I get them!

MRI

Took Brielle to a routine doctor appointment today and discovered that her head circumference has increased quite a bit since she was last measured. Back in December they were concerned about this and sent her for a head ultrasound. The head ultrasound showed that she did have increased fluid on her brain. Well the doctor had just been keeping an eye on things, hoping that the fluid would not increase further. But after today the concern is back again, and Brielle will be getting an MRI sometime this week. If the fluid is in fact increasing, Brielle will probably need to have a shunt put in place to basically help drain the fluid from her brain. So needless to say we would appreciate your prayers during this time.