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.