Celebrating Ella...

HEAVEN WELCOMES ELLA CATE

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Ella Cate peacefully went to be with her Heavenly Father yesterday morning, July 10, 2008. They were not able to even begin the heart cath procedure. She fell asleep in the operating room right before they were to begin her procedure and her weak little heart stopped.

We will forever cherish the 10 weeks we were allowed to have Ella Cate in our possession. We thank the Lord that he gave her to us for that short time. Her spunky spirit and her incessant chatter will be missed. She will never have to struggle through a surgery or procedure and she will forever be at peace.

We want to thank everyone for your prayers through this journey we've been on. We have felt them and the comfort of knowing people are praying is the only thing that helps us make it through it all.

To God be the Glory!

Cardiologist Visit - July 9

We took Ella Cate to the cardiologist again today for a checkup. She weighed in at 8 lbs. 13 oz. They did an EKG and the results of that were about the same as it's been. Then they did an echo and the results of that had changed a little bit. The doctor advised us that one of her valves appears to have gotten a little worse since the last time we did an echo. He said that we needed to go ahead and do the heart cath. We asked him when he was looking at doing that and he said "Tomorrow." We were shocked! The reality quickly set in that our child was having a heart procedure in the morning.

The doctor advised us that while doing the cath, he will probably go ahead and balloon both the pulmonary and aortic valves. There are obvious risks involved anytime you have a procedure done on an infant and especially on an infants heart. However, the success rate is incredibly high for this particular procedure. The main thing we need to pray about with this procedure is that after they balloon the valves, that blood does not regurgitate back into the ventricles of the heart. Some regurgitation is likely and acceptable but too much will cause problems and then they will have to do open heart surgery and replace the valves. We are hoping and praying that this heart cath will fix all her problems.

Please pray for Ella (and us as well) tomorrow that everything will go as planned. We knew all along that we were probably looking at at least doing a heart cath but we were not at all prepared today for the news that her heart cath would be tomorrow. Please pray for us.

Caroline and Ella Would Like to Say HELLO!

Ella Chillin' in her new swing

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CLOSEUP!!!

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Caroline showing off only part of her collection of stuffed animals and babys

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Ella's HUNGRY and upset that mommy just has to have one more picture before feeding her!!!

Big Day for Ella Cate!

First, let me rewind a day or so. Ella Cate got her first set of shots yesterday and while at the doctor, she weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs. 8 oz. She is now 21 inches long as well.

Today is Ella's first day to go to daycare!!! You can imagine how tough this is for her mother and I. This is the first time we have left her anywhere. We feel certain that she will be taken care of where she is though. We are honestly looking at this as a blessing, thanking the Lord that we are able to even put her in daycare at all!!! Laura is going back to work today but her mind will surely be on her child that she's away from for the first time. Please pray for Laura today.

On the other hand, Caroline is extremely excited to get out of the house and go back to daycare where her friends are! Her friends (including cousin Eli) welcomed her this morning with open arms!

Cardiologist Visit - June 18

This was just a check-up for Ella Cate before her doctor goes out of town for 3 weeks. Everything looks pretty much the same as last week. She has gained up to 7 lbs. 15 oz. and she is now 20 in. long. She's still growing!

The doctor will see her again on July 9th and at that time he will likely schedule the heart cath. It will probably be scheduled for a week or so after the July 9th appointment. We will keep you updated.

Cardiologist Visit - June 11

We apologize for the delay in posting the latest bit of information on Ella Cate. It's been a busy couple of weeks! On Wednesday of last week we had another check-up with the cardiologist at Blaire E. Batson Children's Hospital. Again, we got positive news! The doctor advised us that we were probably looking at doing the heart cath anywere from the middle to the end of July. He would like for Ella Cate to be more than 8 pounds when he does this. Ella Cate now weighs 7 lbs. 11 oz.

The good news from this visit is that there is a possibility that when the doctor is doing the heart cath, he can fix all three of her issues at that time. It is also possible that the only thing that needs fixing is the pulmonary valve!!! That is great news because that is the least dangerous of any of the three procedures. The doctor still believes that the coarctation may not be quite the issue that they originally thought it was. He thinks that the turbulence they see in the aorta on the echo is coming from the valve issues. He also thinks that it's entirely possible, not necessarily probable, but possible that the aortic stenosis may be just mild enough not to require any procedure to be done! He said that this possibility is, ofcourse, looking at the situation 100% optimistically, but it's still possible. This is a much better prognosis than we were looking at before!

So, to sum it all up, we will have a heart cath middle to end of July. While doing the heart cath the doctor will fix anything at that time that needs to be fixed by ballooning. This includes both valve issues (if necessary) and the coarctation (if necessary). This procedure will likely take about an hour and if everything goes well, she will only need to stay in the hospital overnight. We go back to the doctor for another echo this week and then we won't go back for about 3 weeks (mid-July).

It's looking up! The Lord has blessed us continuously with good news each time we have visited the cardiologist. We thank Him for the positive news this visit as well! We thank you for your continued prayers and support!

Caroline Realizing the Need to Pray

As most of you know, Caroline is our 5 year old daughter. She is the proud sister of Ella Cate. Caroline has known all along that Ella Cate has a heart problem and she has always shown concern for her little sister and her issue. Recently though, as we've either prayed over our meals or before bedtime, Caroline has started saying her own prayer for Ella Cate. It is one of the sweetest things in the world to hear.

Last night, Laura and I took Caroline and Ella Cate to church to see my nephew, Eli, get baptized. This was Ella Cate's first time to go to church. We sat in the balcony so, in case she got a little bit rowdy, we could just slip out. We watched Eli get baptized and then we sat through the worship time and through the preaching time. At the end, there was an invitation and there were several people who went forward to pray at the altar. Caroline noticed what was going on and asked her mom, "What are they doing down there?"...Laura told her they were praying. Caroline then said that she wanted to go down and pray. Laura asked her why she wanted to do that and Caroline said that she wanted to go down there to pray for Ella Cate's heart. A wave of emotion came over Laura and I when we heard our 5 year old say this and we knew that we had to take her and let her do this. So Caroline, Laura and I went down the stairs of the balcony and made our way down the aisle to the altar as a family to pray for our Ella Cate. It was one of the most awesome experiences I've had in the past 5 weeks! We all prayed separately and then before we left the altar, we all prayed as a family.

It was so awesome to realize that Caroline, at her young age, realizes the power of prayer and the need to pray. She is an example and a challenge to me as I know she is to a lot of you. Ella Cate's biggest prayer warrior might just be her sister!

Friday Weigh-In...June 6, 2008

Well, Ella Cate has gained 7 oz. since this time last week! She now weighs 7 lbs. 2 oz.! Thank the Lord that she continues to grow and gain weight. She is beginning to eat more now and seems to ALWAYS be hungry!!! She's eating atleast 3 oz. every feeding now.

Next week we go back to the cardiologist for the first time in two weeks. It was nice this week to have a break from that. They should do another echo next week, so I'm sure we'll have another update then. Thank you for your continued prayers and support!

Friday Weigh-In...

After a brief visit at the doctor's office this afternoon, Ella Cate weighs a whopping 6 lbs. 11 oz. They weighed her today in only a clean diaper. When she weighed in at 6lbs. 10 oz. on Tuesday, they weighed her with all her clothes on...She has probably gained a couple of ounces since then. She's getting some chubby cheeks!

Step Two of our Journey: May 28, Cardiology Visit

Well, we got good news today!

First of all, after weighing Ella Cate, we learned that she now weighs 6 lbs. 10 oz. and is 19 in. long! She's growing! This was great news at the beginning of our visit.

Our next bit of good news was that upon looking at the results of the echo done today, our doctor informed us that he thinks that the coarctation is no longer a serious issue. He believes that the turbulence of blood around the area where the coarctation of the aorta was is actually turbulence caused by the two defective valves within her heart (Aortic Stenosis and Pulmonary Stenosis). WHAT AN ANSWER TO PRAYER!

Further, our doctor has decided to wait on doing a heart cath at this point to give Ella Cate more time to grow. He believes that she is at very little risk to have heart complications at this time. We are scheduled to go back for another echo in two weeks to make sure that her condition is not worsening. As long as her conditions do not worsen, we will not have the heart cath until she has gained at least another two pounds. We are, however, still looking at having the heart cath within the next month or two. When they do the cath, they will then be able to accurately determine her valve conditions and will be able to balloon both valves if necessary. Our doctor informed us that the pulmonary valve is not as critical as the aortic valve, but he would repair both at the time of the cath. The aortic valve is more complicated, and therefore more risky. He feels certain though that he can repair both valves with the ballooning procedure with no complications. The main risk is that the valve will stick open and the blood will regurgitate back into the heart. If this complication does arise in the repair of the aortic valve, surgery would be necessary to correct this issue.

What an encouraging and uplifting visit today! It is obvious to us that our prayers, and the prayers of our friends and families are being answered. We are still praying for complete healing of our Ella Cate. We know that God is the Great Physician and is fully capable of repairing her little heart. We can't help but think how awesome it would be for her to continue to improve and no procedures would be needed!

Blessing of the Day - May 23

Laura took Ella Cate to the doctor this afternoon to check her weight and she now weighs 6 lbs. 2 oz.!!!! Thank You Lord!

Step One of Our Journey: May 20, Cardiologist Visit

It came time for our first visit to the pediatric cardiologist. The cardiologist office was in the Blair E. Batson Children's Hospital at UMC. What an experience from the time we walked in the door! We were truly not prepared for the sick children we would see when we arrived. We immediately realized that we were taking our child to a "children's hospital" for evaluation. On one hand we were thankful that our child was not a cancer patient or in a wheelchair as some of the other children there were. But at the same time we wondered if we really should be in a place such as this. Obviously, we were supposed to be. That realization was tough.

We were not really that worried about this visit because we truly just expected to affirm what we already knew was the situation. Ofcourse we were holding out some hope for a miracle, but we felt we were prepared for anything. Only God can give the peace that we experienced that day.

Upon visiting with the cardiologist we confirmed that Ella Cate has three different heart conditions: aortic stenosis, pulmonary stenosis, and a coarctation of the aorta. To the best of our understanding there are two sets of valves inside her heart that allow blood to flow through her heart to the rest of her body. Those two valves are thicker than normal causing the heart to have to work harder than it should to pump the blood through those valves. This is the Aortic and Pulmonary Stenosis. The coarctation of the aorta is simply a narrowing of the aorta which basically constricts bloodflow to the rest of the body. After looking at the ECHO results, our cardiologist said that overall, Ella Cate looks better than the results are showing. She is progressing and not regressing. She's gaining weight, her color is good, she's eating well, her breathing is not labored and she has pulses to her lower extremeties, which is uncommon in heart babies. Our cardiologist introduced us to the pediatric cardiology surgeon that will help us determine what and when repairs need to be made. The first step in doing that is having a Heart Catherization done in two weeks to take measurements from inside her heart, as well as pictures so that they can positively determine the severity of the issue. This will tell us our next step.

While meeting with the cardiologist we also discussed possible treatments or procedures. It's entirely possible that they could fix the two valves by a procedure call Ballooning. This would not be a surgical procedure, but obviously there is risk involved anytime you perform an invasive procedure, especially on an infant. He advised us that the coarctation would likely be corrected by open heart surgery. However, he felt that the more urgent issue at this time was repair of the valves. There might be a slight possibility that the coarctation would become less of an issue as she, and her heart, grows. They will obviously monitor this closely. We were overwhelmed that repair of our Ella Cate's heart would be a journey and not a quick-fix. However, God once again gave us strength, peace and courage as we left the hospital that day, facing the next step of our journey.

The blessing of the day was that Ella Cate had gained a whole pound since she was born!!! She now weighs a whopping 5 lbs. 15 oz.

GOING HOME!!!

We could not believe all that the Lord had brought us through over the past 5 days. We were finally getting to take our new baby home! Still, it felt different from the first time we brought a baby home from the hospital almost 6 years ago. Caroline was born perfectly healthy and there was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary to worry about with her once we got home. This time was different. We were worried sick that we needed to watch every breath that Ella Cate would take in our care. We obviously feared the worst situations could transpire while she was solely under our care. The doctor's assured us though that there was nothing to worry about at this time and that we could carry on like nothing was wrong. Easier said than done!!! We worried sick the first couple of days. Some moments were easier than others. There were times where we were constantly paranoid. God gave us strength and understanding through it all.

Now we just had to make sure that Ella Cate continued to eat like she should so that she could grow and get more weight on her. We didn't know what we were looking at down the road, but we had to get her as strong as she could be for whatever she would have to go through. When we left the hospital she weighed only 4 lbs. 12 oz. Ella Cate needed to eat like a horse and so far she has!

Before we left the hospital they told us we had an appointment with a pediatric cardiologist in two weeks to do another Echo. That would be the next step.

The following video is a slideshow testimony of our experience in the hospital.

Life In The NICU

Midday on Friday, May 2, we had to let the nurses take Ella Cate to NICU so that they could monitor her closely. The doctor told us that they would do another Echo on Monday to see if the ductus had closed and they would then let us know what we would do next. There were many possibilities at this point. There was a possibility that when Ella Cate's ductus closed, she could begin to experience heart failure and if that happened, they would immediately fly her to Cleveland, OH to perform open heart surgery on her to fix the problems. If that were to transpire that would put me (Aaron) flying with her and that would have left her mother (Laura) in the hospital in MS recovering from childbirth. Another possibility was that Ella Cate would have no symptoms of heart failure when the ductus closed and that would mean that it would be an issue that wasn't near as urgent. The latter is what we were praying for! So, here it is Friday and we know we have to wait til Monday to run the test and meanwhile, we have to watch Ella Cate closely to make sure she doesn't go into cardiac arrest. Saturday and Sunday were two of the most miserable days of our lives! Thankfully, we had friends that visited and family that stayed and experienced it all with us.

During this time, as I mentioned, Ella Cate was in NICU. Over the weekend, Laura and I made countless trips down the hall and were allowed to visit and feed our new baby while she remained connected to machines that monitored her heart condition. There were a couple times that we were allowed to bring our other daughter, Caroline, in to see her sister. It was very difficult each time we had to leave Ella Cate in NICU and could not bring her back to our room with us. It was beginning to set in heavily that we had a sick child and this is not the way it was supposed to happen.

Again, our family, friends and our faith was our strength! Over the next two days, we began to get calls from numerous people from all over the place wondering how our baby was doing. Folks began to tell about how many people and how many churches were praying for her and for us during this time. It was incredibly humbling to hear that so many people cared and were concerned for us during this time. We felt the prayers! We felt the Lord give us strength! It's strange how in such a hard time that you can be so blessed...we were feeling the good come out of a bad situation.

Still, it was hard. We had to hold to little victories along the way. Everytime we went into the NICU to see Ella Cate and everytime we saw that her oxygen levels and her heart rate were good, we would thank the Lord. It was still constant worry. The fear and pain was horrible at night when we had to leave her for the evening and knew anything could happen while we slept. We felt guilt. But, once again, God gave us strength and understanding.

Finally, Monday came. It came time to do her Echo and see if her situation had gotten worse or maybe it had gotten better. Maybe it would be that her ductus closed with no symptoms of heart failure and it would be something that she could live with for awhile and we could take her home! Sure enough, the ductus had closed! We were rejoicing!!! They told us that she seemed to have no symptoms at all from her ductus closing and that meant that she was getting enough bloodflow for the time being. They told us we would probably be able to take her home in a day or two. We could not believe the miracle and blessing (AGAIN) we had just witnessed! Our prayers had been answered! We would go home on Tuesday, May 6.

Welcome to our world!

It's fitting, I think, that we begin this new blog with a post about a new life. Our family welcomed Ella Cate Dees into the world on Thursday, May 1, 2008. Ella Cate was born a few weeks early, but all seemed to be fine upon her arrival. Immediately after her delivery, we realized that we had just witnessed a MIRACLE! The doctor informed us that Laura had developed an issue in her womb, that if we had not delivered when we did, We could have had a disasterous situation on our hands. It's entirely possible that if our doctor would not have decided to take Ella Cate when he did, we could have had a still birth. We fully believe that God impressed upon our doctor's heart the need to deliver her on this day. Thank you Lord for that!

On friday, May 2, 2008, while doing her routine checks on Ella Cate, the neonatologist informed us that she heard a substantial murmer while listening to Ella Cate's heartbeat. She came to us and told us that they were going to run an Echocardiogram to see exactly what was causing the murmer. Upon getting the results of the first Echo, we found out that Ella Cate had a mild coarctation of the aorta as well as aortic stenosis. The coarctation means that one of the main veins coming from her heart, sending blood to all parts of her body, has a narrowing in one spot obstructing smooth bloodflow. Aortic stenosis involves a valve that is thicker than it should be, resulting in a smaller than normal amount of bloodflow. We were also told that there was another blood vessel or vein called a ductus, that was supposed to close within three days of birth, hadn't closed yet. The ductus closing is a process that is normal in all newborns. They were concerned though that when Ella Cate's ductus closed, that she might have symptoms that she wasn't getting enough bloodflow or perhaps she could even go into cardiac arrest. The next 24-72 hours were going to be critical. Because of this, they decided to move Ella Cate from the well-baby nursery to NICU so that they could closely monitor her.