Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Continue to Pray

A few of Team Brave Heart Mama's, including myself, went and visited Alyssa's family last night. Alyssa was very uncomfortable and having some blood pressure issues so we visited with her Mama a few seconds to let her know we are praying.
This is the update from this morning:
"Alyssa has had a few set backs in the last 12 hours or so. Her GI system is having a tough time getting started again and causing her considerable pain. She has been screaming a lot with very little sleep and it has been really difficult for Mom and Dad. They still aren't allowed to hold her yet and are having a really hard time comforting her. The doctors have re-inserted a tube to clear out her stomach and have restarted her IV blood pressure medicine. They have increased her pain medication and gave her a sedative last night. She finally was able to get a couple of hours of rest. "

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Updates

I'm getting ready to go visit Alyssa's family myself but I did receive a message from another team member:
Yesterday afternoon-
"She had closed heart surgery (went through her side) and was not on the heart-lung by-pass machine. She was off the vent before her parents saw her in the PICU! Alyssa is recovering quickly....keep the prayers coming."
This morning-
"Let me start by saying Alyssa is the most amazing little girl I have ever known. Just hours after surgery the doctors had Alyssa sitting up in bed and talking. She was saying "all done" but I'm sure those words were music to her parents ears! Alyssa had a little rasp when breathing so the doctors did a chest x-ray and it came out clear. They did a breathing treatment this morning and hopefully this will clear up her lungs and airway. The doctors also took Alyssa off her Oxygen tube and started changing her Blood Pressure medicine. They want to try to give Alyssa some liquids today to see how her digestive system reacts."
I'll update more tomorrow.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Please Pray

I know the walk was very emotional for all of our families but, especially for Alyssa and Logan's. Alyssa is undergoing her first open heart surgery as I type in the wonderful hands of the nurses and Dr.'s at Kosair Childrens Hopsital. Alyssa's Mommy and Daddy were so strong and came yesterday to walk in Alyssa's honor. We are praying for you Alyssa.

Also, Logan's family was in attendence - Logan is a HLHS survivor as will be undergoing his Fontan in just 2 short weeks.



Heart Walk After Party 2007



Thanks to Shanna & Dan for opening your homes to the Team Brave Hearts crew for an after party. As you can see from the pictures, we had a blast. It was beautiful to sit back and see these children who have overcome and are still overcoming so many obstacles in their little lives to just be able to be kids and have fun - it brought tears to my eyes.

Kentuckiana Heart Walk 2007


The Walk was amazing!!! We have alway's been included in the Louisville Friends & Family team's and on Fri. night the president of AHA called and said that because of how much work we had done, we were going to be recognized as a company team and had our own spot at the beginning as a top walker team!!! Usually company teams are ranked and then Friends & Family teams are ranked - weren't we surprised to be the #1 Friends & Family team and the #5 Company team (out of some major corporations) raising an amazing $20,000.00 - WOW! Goes to show that everyone can make a difference - we started out as 3 families and have grown to 16. We were also asked to go live on the news with Angie Glotzbach (a heart survivor herself) on WAVE3 Louisville and quoted in the Courier Journal http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007708260624 - getting awesome opportunities to raise awareness in so many ways.


Saturday, August 25, 2007

Team Brave Hearts Kentuckiana AHA Heartwalk 2007

All of you that keep up with Evan's blog have been touched by CHD's in some way, either by Evan or your own child so, I wanted to post a link to his donation page for the American Heart Association's Kentuckiana 2007 Heartwalk. This is our 3rd walk and we will be walking again this year with other CHD families under "Team Brave Hearts". Our main goal in participating in this walk is to raise awareness of CHD's and funds for much needed research. If anyone would like to donate, his personal donation page link is: https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=215841&lis=1&kntae215841=07A614B828344CA5959CA8FE623F5775&supId=136764053

Thursday, August 23, 2007

1st Day of Pre-School

Camping Trip

T-Ball

Pictures

This has been such a week. We went camping on Nolin Lake for the weekend and had a blast with Eric's brother and sister in law. We came home Sun. and got things ready for Evan's first day of pre-school. Evan told me his belly hurt before bedtime and woke up about 10:30 and started vomiting and continued every hour for the rest of the night and started with the poo's Mon. morning so he missed his first day of school. I did about 10 loads of laundry Mon. and took Evan to the Dr. to confirm he had a 24 hr. virus. We rested most of Tue. and Evan's yuckiness stopped but he started running a 101.6 fever which also went away later on Tue. Evan's Dr. said as long as his yuckiness stopped and his fever was gone that he wasn't contagious so Evan got to start school on Wed. but, I'm not sure that was the best idea. They said he had lots of fun, was well behaved and a good helper but that at naptime he said his belly hurt and that he needed his Mommy to tell her he loved her, awwwhhhh. My Mom picked him up from school and they said he had been crying - she said he was pitiful. We had bank night for the heart walk on Sat. last night and last I heard we were less than $2000.00 away from out $20,000.00 goal - GO TEAM BRAVE HEARTS!!! We woke up this morning to hear there was a horrible accident on I-65 and that we would need to take alternate routes into town - turned our usual 1/2 hr. drive to 1 1/2 hrs. and then about a mile from my Mom's Evan said he needed to go to the potty and didn't make it. I walk into my Mom's and she is on the couch sick - ARGH - I can't handle much more of this. I'm at work just to catch up for an hour or two and then going to get him to go back home. Enjoy our summer and school pic's.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Brave Hearts Golf Scramble 2007




All I can say about Team Brave Hearts Golf Scramble 2007 for AHA is - WOW. We had a wonderful turnout of 80+ golfers despite the heat and raised over $5000.00 for the American Heart Association. It was a lot of work but so rewarding and our team is growing by leaps and bounds - we are a force to be reckoned with here in Kentuckiana. I'm amazed and blessed by the support we have received from our families, friends and our community. The walk is in two weeks. We also have a movie that was played during the scramble inside the clubhouse that got a lot of recognition from our local AHA president and I'll be posting it soon so, come back and prepared to be touched.