Natalie Update

How is Natalie doing? She is doing fine, I don't think she has any clue her body is different...

What Natalie has been diagnosed with is Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. She has been given medication called a beta blocker to slow down her heart rate, and relieve some of the symptoms.

The prognosis includes open heart surgery, called a Myectomy, the first part of next year. The surgeon will go in and remove the large tissue build up in her heart that is blocking a valve in the left ventricle.



Her next appointment at the Mayo is January 7th. She will have a more thourough ECHO under sedation (an ultrasound of the heart), see the surgeon, pediatric cardiologist, and a genetic counlser also. I anticipate we will be scheduling surgery that day as well. Meanwhile, she has a follow up at the Children's Heart Clinic in St. Paul on Friday. Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Natalie will all have ECHOs done.

Matt and I were screened yesterday, and we will have our results on Friday. How are we holding up? Good days and bad days. Sometimes I can hardly believe what we are going through, and the thought of loosing Natalie is tangible. Other days I ignore it, and other days my faith tells me that she will come through this. I also fear that the boys will have the same condition, or Matt...I just try to ignore all the bad things. Please pray that Natalie's heart has no change for the worse, and that the medication carries her through to her surgery without any problems. And pray that Jesus would carry all of us. I am scared, and worried and angry. I PRAY THAT WE ARE ON THE VERGE OF THE MOST WONDERFUL STREAK OF BLESSINGS! And that God would open my eyes to see what they are.

Thanksgiving Week

While Matt hunted this year, the kids and I had a few adventures of our own. We spent one afternoon at the Mall of America's Underwater Adventures. Thanks to Aunty Chelsea for coming with!

Jeremiah finally gets the nerve to pet one of the sharks, when it pops up out of the water and scares the crap out of him! He didn't try again.

Isaiah loves petting the stingrays and sharks, and thinks it hilarious when the come up out of the water and splash. Thanks to my mom too, who kept us sane at home during hunting week!







After a rough road trip (the van broke down, and Grandpa Jeff had to come rescue us!) we made it to Wisconsin and had a great Thanksgiving. Lori knows how to cook! We even had an encore dinner the next night: RIBS! Wonder Woman strikes again...

Natalie telling GaGa her Christmas List...I think she'll get everything on it if GaGa has anything to do with it!



Our attempt to take a group picture...a thousand words...

All the cousins spent lots of time in the play room making "Camp Sites." Aunty Taba supervised, and things got a little crazy...but we like it that way!

CRAZY FUN!

We stopped at the mechanic on the way home to pick up the van, and Lightening and Mater were there! It was almost worth it! Thanks Chris, for going out your way to get us to the van.

Jeremiah is potty trained! Here he demostrates his newly learned trick on the side of the road on the way home.

Sunday we went out to get our Christmas Tree. It was fun picking out the most expensive tree on the lot. Apparently we wandered into the Frasier Furs...they gave us a deal! Hopefully the tree next year will have a different van under it.

I hope everyone enjoys the Christmas Season! Look for blog updates on Natalie coming soon.