Thankful for Colds!

Yes, you read that right - we are thankful for head colds around here! For one, I'd take a head cold any day over some of the stuff our friends have had. Yucky!! Second, this weekend we were very concerned about Rebekah because she began to show a dramatic decrease in both appetite and activity level. While in most kids that is not cause for great alarm (for a day or two), those can be warning signs of early heart failure. So on Sunday morning we decided to call cardiology just to let them know what was going on. We were reassured (somewhat) by the on-call cardiologist that heart failure usually does not present that suddenly (but we are talking about Rebekah, here. When does she ever do things the usual way??). He gave us a few other things to watch for, but basically we ended the call hoping that by mid-week Rebekah would start showing signs of her brother's cold, and we would have an answer for her lack of appetite and energy level.

Aaron, Rebekah, and Caleb playing with homemade maracas.

Well, this morning Rebekah was gracious enough to wake up with a very congested nose and cough. While we certainly wouldn't wish her to be sick, we are very thankful that we can blame all of these symptoms on a cold and not on her heart. Now we are praying that she can fight this cold off in a couple of days and avoid a hospital trip. :)

Zac and Rebekah, our oldest and youngest.
When did they get so big??

Rebekah was a little couch-potato over the weekend. She wanted to be held, cuddled, and loved on, and we were all happy to comply. :) In the above picture, Rebekah snuggled on the couch with Zachary for a long time while all the kids watched Snow White for the first time. They loved it! Rebekah was especially cute; she kept pointing to the TV saying, "Look! Look!"

Happy Valentine's Day!!

The kids and I made cookies for Valentine's Day on Saturday. We all had one after dinner on Saturday night. Rebekah wasn't sure what to do with hers. She kept pointing at it, poking it, pinching frosting off, and talking about it, but she never did pick it up and eat it. Oh, well, she had lots of fun with it! :)

Rebekah is "so big!" She also has frosting everywhere.

In other news, we did hear back from MUSC last week regarding the schedule for Rebekah's next heart catheterization. Dr. Bradley (Rebekah's surgeon) does not see any benefit to moving the heart cath any sooner than it is already scheduled (March 7). He really feels that the high pressure is due to the one-lung situation and is not something that will be resolved in the cath lab. So, his expectation is to get a general "lay-of-the-land" so to speak, of how Rebekah's heart looks now in preparation for another open heart surgery. I'm not sure exactly when that surgery (if needed) will be, but according to Dr. Lucas, he does not anticipate it immediately following the heart catheterization (as in the same week). He said what will probably happen is that we will have the cath, come home, and wait for a phone call from MUSC after all the cardiologists, cath doctor and surgeon have had time to review Rebekah's case and get it on the surgery schedule.

Even covered in frosting, I'm still cute!

I guess that about wraps up the latest developments here. Continue to pray that Rebekah recovers from this cold quickly and that she stays healthy between now and time for her heart catheterization. As I recall, last year around this time we were also praying for Rebekah to stay well prior to a heart cath. Same song, different verse. :)

I just have to quickly share a huge praise for our little buddy, Owen. He had major open-heart surgery last week Tuesday to repair or replace his tricuspid valve. The surgeon was able to repair Owen's valve, so there was no need for replacement! This means that he will be a candidate for the third surgery of the three HLHS surgeries, and will be scheduled sometime later this year for that surgery. His recovery is going wonderfully, and there is talk that he might be going home as early as tomorrow!!! Way to go, Owen!!

Rebekah says hi to Grammy and Nana!

Ummm, yes, she can talk! Matter of fact,

we have a hard time getting her to be quiet sometimes!!

Nancy