My Baby Is Growing Up!

Abbey in the living room...

Rachel Update

Rachel's heart surgery seemed to go smoothly.  The device fit well and covered up the hole.  We are glad we did it because the hole was rather large.  She was doing great up until around 10PM on the night of her surgery (Monday night).  She was laying in the hospital bed and broke out into a head to toe rash.  It really had the doctors stumped because most of the med's she received were pretty mild.

The rash continued to worsen and she became very uncomfortable.  They ended up discharging her on Tuesday afternoon but she looked and felt awful.

Neither one of us felt comfortable with her condition and were worried that the antibiotics she was taking were making her condition worse.  We made an appointment with an allergy specialist and we saw him on Wednesday (same doctor that sees Abbey).  He seemed to think that it might have been the morphine but at this point it is just a guess.

It is very important that Rachel be on antibiotics to protect her heart as bacteria is prone to attack the device in her heart!  But her body seems to reject most everything we give her.  At the moment she is on 6 medications (antibiotics, steroids and blood thinners)!!!

She did feel better today when she woke up and she is starting to look better too.

Thanks so much for your prayers!  We are so grateful for all the family and friends who called, wrote, emailed, texted and visited...and brought us some great meals!!!  We don't know what we would do without you!  We had a good friend (Aly Thrift) visit with Rachel on Monday night and Tuesday morning...and she came over this morning to help with Abbey.  My mother was here all day on Wednesday and is taking Rachel to the doctor tomorrow so I can get some work done.  My sister Kim watched Abbey this afternoon for several hours to allow Rachel to rest.  My Dad is watching Abbey on Friday so Rachel can go to the doctor and rest.  People from church are constantly calling and emailing.  All this to say...thanks!!!!

Please keep Rachel's mother Sue in your prayers as well.  She wasn't able to be here because she fell and broke her hip.  I'm sure she will be up here ASAP to help out (actually that will just be the excuse, the real reason...to see her grand-daughter!!!  She is such a blessing to our family!

Thanks again!

Klint, Rachel and Abbey  

Rachel's Heart Procedure

Rachel and I will drive to Children's Hospital in downtown Detroit early Monday morning for the procedure we have been anticipating for the last three years.  After several doctors visits and countless hours of internet research we have decided to get the tiny hole in Rachel's heart closed up.  The hole is known as a "PFO" and will be closed through a catheter.  The doctor will make a small incision in her inner thigh and insert the catheter into one of the arteries that makes its way to the heart.  He will then use an "umbrella" like device to patch the hole and eventually the skin in the heart will grow over so the device is no longer exposed.  We are doing this to prevent any infections "sneaking" through this hole and making their way to the brain again...like it did three in a half years ago!

The procedure lasts a couple hours and then Rachel will have to lay still for another 6-8 hours while the incision area clots up.  She will stay in the hospital over night and hopefully come home on Tuesday afternoon.  We are both excited that this procedure is finally scheduled and will be completed soon.  The doctor performing the procedure is Dr. Forbes and we both like him very much.  We are anxious to put this behind us and move forward with some closure to the past 3 years. 

Thanks to all who have been praying and will continue to pray.  I hope to give an update on Tuesday.   

New Years and Abbey's Birthday