WOW!!

WOW!!  We have been flooded with the love, support, prayers, service, help, gifts, texts, calls and notes of so many amazing people! - THANK YOU!!

We were told to plan on a hospital stay of 10-15 days.  We were there a whopping 4!  Stella credits "being a ginger" to her early discharge!😆

Our Heavenly Father is amazing!!

Going home

Doctor said we can go home!  Stella still has 6 weeks of taking it easy.

Thanks to her teacher Mrs. Eastman and her class for making her this awesome blanket!

Madam Mim

She has had a tiring day.  They made her get up and walk down the hall and she got sore and tired and now hates sunshine.

Games in the dark

I was surprised when Stella opened her eyes this morning and said, "Dad can I play games on your phone."  She must be feeling better

Out of the ICU

Stella was moved out of the ICU into her own room.  All chest tubes are out and she was able to get up and walk a little even though it was pretty painful.  The walk pretty much wiped her out so she is sleeping like a log.

X-ray

This is a an X-ray that shows Stella's new pulmonary valve.  You can also see the 2 drainage tubes in the X-ray.  They just took one out and will hopefully take the other one out soon.

Sleepy

We had a good night. She still nauseous from the medicine, but is able to hold down liquids.

CICU

Taking her sweet time waking up.  But doing awesome.  Thank you all for your prayers and kind words.

Surgery Finished

Surgery is done!  The doctor said everything went awesome.  We are just waiting for them to transfer her to the Cardiac ICU.

Bypass

They just updated us and said that Stella is on the bypass machine and they are starting the repair.

Just went back to the opperating room. They told us to plan on 6 hours.  She wasn't even nervous.  I think the Versed helped.

All done with Pre Opp Visit.

Coming up . . .

Tetralogy of Fallot (ToF) is a complex heart defect. If you have ToF, you are born with four different heart problems:

• A hole in the wall between your heart’s main pumping chambers (ventricular septal defect or VSD)
• A valve between your heart and lungs that is too narrow (pulmonary stenosis or PS)
• A right heart chamber with walls that are too thick (right ventricular hypertrophy)
• A major blood vessel (aorta) that is misplaced or moved (overriding aorta)

Stella is 8 years old.  She is a sweetheart.  She is super imaginative.  She is our worrier.  She is a daydreamer.  She is great at math.  She loves playing with friends.  

Tuesday, March 28th, she is going in for her 2nd open heart surgery.  She is getting a new pulmonary valve.

Matt and I will be trying to update this blog regularly to keep family and friends informed on her progress.  Thank you all for your prayers and love!