August 24, 2010

Long time...no talk....back for another cath

Hello everyone,


Sorry for not posting all summer. Jenna has kept us quite busy. After we returned home in April, the very next weekend she broke her arm. She was being the usual Jenna, wild as ever and fell off of a chair. She was in a cast for four weeks, and then had it off. During that time, she was admitted to Cabell Huntington with para influenza virus, pneumonia, multiple types of bacterial infections. After a very rough week, we were sent home on antibiotics and a picc line which we had for about two weeks. I will just leave it at-we will be going to Cincinnati for all in hospital care for Jenna from now on. After her cast came off, she enjoyed herself for a while, then later in July she broke her arm again. Same arm, different location. At this point, I felt awful and when we went to the ER we were drilled because it happened so soon from the last one. That was fun, NOT. Anyway, we tried to enjoy most of our summer. Playing outside when we could, it has been very hot and humid two areas of the weather which are not Jenna's friends. So we stayed inside quite a bit, or went to visit family and friends. Jenna has grown so much this summer, we are just amazed!! She is now almost 30 pounds and 35 inches tall! My little chunky monkey!! She has improved quite a bit in her speech as well, still having issues but is getting better. We are so proud of her!! This last month we have been staying home quite a bit, because we were going for a heart cath soon. Have to make sure and keep all the bugs away, we do not need any sickness to come our way. This past weekend was a sad memory for us, it marked the one year anniversary of the "Day that will never be forgotten". Miss Jenna has come so far since that day last summer, when God decided (after Justin and I were begging and pleading with him) that it was not her time. She has a path in life and he has plans for her, neither of which that any of us know. We are just so happy to be blessed to still have her in our lives, she has such determination and strength for such a little girl. She is all smiles and laughs-most of the time :), for someone who has been through so much. She has come sooooooo far. I found pictures of her over the weekend around that time last year, and I was just amazed at how she looked. She has changed so much since then. Justin and I were so thankful (and still are) for God being with her and us that day, along with having the doctors, nurses, and staff doing everything they could to save her life. We could not ask for a better group of people to take care of our daughter. Thank you so much Cincinnati Children's CICU team and Cardiovascular group-everyone involved in the Cardiology Department. Each person has helped our daughter in some way, and we cannot thank you enough.

So here we are now, back in Cincinnati for another heart cath, #8. She went back this morning around 8am to get started. We spoke with Dr. Beekman this morning about the plan for today. He said that he was going to look at both sides to see what her options were at this point. He said that he was going to possibly balloon the areas and maybe stent some areas, just depends. He hopes to be successful, which is our hope. We received an update about an hour ago, he ended accessing through her liver, because he is no longer able to get through her legs at this time, too much damage. The procedure option is fine, Dr. Beekman actually invented the access option for caths. Same type of risks and complications at this point as going through her leg, they just place a coil in her liver to close off the site and stop bleeding. We spoke with Janie, the nurse practitioner at this point and she said Jenna is doing great, no issues. So far they looked at her right, which he did not do anything new, no changes. On her left side, he attempted opening the stent already placed because it is narrowed. He ended placing another stent in the area. At this point, that is all we know that he has done. They did do a scope in her trachea by ENT, we received pictures, but have not talked to anyone. They are also replacing her G tube, because hers seems a little loose at this point than normal, so since she is asleep we will just change it. The nurse went to go get Jenna now, so hopefully we will know how she is doing real soon and get to see her. I will update everyone as soon as possible. Thanks so much for the love support and prayers!!!!


Love, Jenny Justin and Jenna

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