Email sent to family and friends on 5/23/2013:
Hello, all!
Evin had an appointment
yesterday with the cardiologist. We are
lucky because Cooks has a cardiology office at the hospital in Mansfield and we
are able to see her there instead of driving to Fort Worth.
Evin got another good
report!
-Her oxygen saturation was
around 96 this visit, which is still a bit higher than they would like it to
be. I have been checking it about every
other day or so at home and it is usually around 95.
-They performed an
echocardiogram and reviewed it, and everything looks as they expect it to. I was able to sit and watch and the nurse
pointed out some areas of the heart so I could see the blood flow. Some areas had smooth blood flow and some had
turbulent flow, but again, it looked as they expected it to, which is good
news.
-We discussed how Evin has
been doing at home, particularly how she is eating. Occasionally she has some heavy breathing
during bottles, so they decided that Evin will now have Lasix twice a day
rather than just once a day. This flushes
out excess fluid in her body so her heart won’t have to pump quite so
hard. We saw a difference in Evin after
she was put on the once a day dose, so hopefully we see even more improvement
with twice a day!
-I asked what we can expect
with her next surgery. She said that at
4 months we will probably make a trip to Cooks for the surgeons to run tests
and then set a date for the surgery- probably between 4 & 6 months. They will use the same incision line that
they used for the first one, but this time she will probably come out of
surgery with her chest still open due to swelling. They will close it after a day or two. The total hospital stay will probably be
shorter than it was last time- maybe around 2 weeks. If there are unexpected complications during
recovery, our stay would obviously be extended.
When we meet with the surgeon at 4 months we will get many more details
about the procedure and what to expect.
-Evin will go back to the
cardiologist 3 weeks from today, on June 12th.
In other Evin news:
- Last Friday Mitch and I
took Evin to her 2 month check up with the pediatrician. Our tiny girl weighed 8 pounds 5 ounces (2nd
percentile) and was 21 ¼ inches long (10th percentile). She is gaining about an ounce a day, which is
great! We will continue feeding her
breast milk with formula added in to try and boost her calories and weight
gain. Hopefully after her next surgery
her little heart won’t have to be working so hard and she can really take off
and grow, grow, grow! Also, at this
appointment poor baby had to have 5 shots, but it might have been harder on
Mommy than on Evin! She was a champ and
stopped crying after just a minute or two.
-She turned 2 months old on
Monday, which is so hard to believe! In
one way I feel like we just came home with her, and in another way I can’t even
remember what life was like before having her.
-She still wears Newborn
clothes but is starting to fit into some 0-3 month clothes.
-She would probably love to
sleep from about 10pm-6am, but we wake her up a couple of times to eat during
that time. Most new parents wish for a
baby to sleep that much, but we are determined for her to gain as much weight
as possible before her next surgery!
-She LOVES to be held. Lucky for her, she has lots of people that love
to hold her. Sometimes she will wake up
in her swing or bouncer and start crying hard, but she turns it off the second
you pick her up! I feel like I missed
out on almost 3 weeks of getting to hold her due to her first hospital stay, so
I am trying to make up for it now. J
-She loves her paci, but also loves her
thumb. There are some days that I fight
her on sucking her thumb! I pull it out
and replace it with a paci, but occasionally she ends up with her thumb back in
her mouth.
-She really likes to stretch out on the floor
or on her changing table and kick her legs.
Maybe a future soccer player?!?
Daddy likes to think so!
-She is really a good baby and such a little
sweetheart. She has been dishing out
LOTS of smiles and it just melts my heart to see her so happy.
MANY thanks to you all for continuing to lift
Evin and our family in prayer. I talk to
so many people who tell me, “Oh, my church has been praying for Evin,” or, “My
kids pray for Evin every night before bed.”
It makes my heart swell and brings tears to my eyes! THANK YOU for the prayers.
Kori
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