Still waiting for a surgery date...

We are still waiting... The paperwork hasn't been sent over to the surgeons office yet. As soon as it does then we will get a call to meet with Dr. Starns & hopefully we will have a date soon after that. I've been told that it tends to go pretty fast but we'll see... meaning we won't have to wait long for the surgical date. As soon as I hear you'll know...

Though this process I have learned one thing about myself, I hate waiting! I don't mind counting down to a date but waiting to find out the date, with so many variables up in the air... Yeah I don't like it! We hope to have Payton out of the hospital for Thanksgiving for a family picture & I'm still hoping to be able to go up to Idaho in late December for my brothers wedding but the only way for that to happen is for Little Missy to be free & clear. Oh well... for now we wait & see what the next 2 months will be like!

I <3 Letter Factory

Payton has been learning her letters with the help of Letter Factory by Leap Frog. She is getting so good!

The cutest one yet is when she says Daba U. She will not do it for the camera so I'm going to have to be tricky... I'll have to turn on my brain & figure out a way to get it on camera.

She was watching it & decided she needed a hat. I was a little preoccupied so I didn't try to find out why my non-hat wearing girl all of a sudden wanted a hat. Can you tell why she wanted it?

She noticed Tad had a hat on & so I guess that means that she had to have one on too.

We went to the Dr.'s yesterday & everything looks good. We were able to see some pictures from during the cath... very interesting! So no surgery date yet. We have to meet with the surgeon & have a consult first. I should be getting a call to schedule the consult in the next few days to schedule it. The surgery will most likely be before the end of the year. I'm still hoping for mid November. We go back in on Nov 3rd to see Dr. Burke.

Payton loves to help me when I'm working. My favorite feature of my machine is also Payton's. All of the speciality feet are stored on the side of the machine with a door that is pulled down so you can get to them. Payton loves to pull it down & rearrange the pieces.

She also likes to help me feed the fabric through but gets bored after a short amount of time.

Payton loves to 'help' me with whatever I'm doing but lately she is learning to play by herself... which by the way is WONDERFUL! She has been such a good girl & I have been able to get a lot done lately.

The aftermath...

Payton came home with a lot of things taped up but I didn't have the heart to take any off the day we got home because she wasn't feeling all that well. She wore a long sleeve shirt home from the hospital & that night to bed so she didn't know any better. I even asked her that night to show me her owies & she looked at her knees & couldn't find any. 'No Owies Momma'

Above was Payton the next morning. I took her up to my mom's to visit but also to get help to remove the things on her arm. There are 2 things by her wrist, 1 is the hospital bracelet & the other closest to her hand was where the IV was.

She was not happy when I was taking it off. I even got some adhesive remover pads from the hospital & those didn't help... or at least they didn't stop the tears & looks of 'why are you doing this to me'. The orange strip above my mom's finger was from the betadine wash. She had it all over her body & came off with her first bath. You can also see some red marks on her right leg that is from adhesive of some kind. The red marks stayed thru Thursday (the cath was Wednesday). So it took a couple of tries to get access in her arm. There were quite a few pokes but not bad. About 30 minutes after we took it off I asked Payton if she had any oweys & she extended her arm, pushed her bottom lip out & said 'Owey!'

Thursday we tried to take off the one on her neck but that didn't go very well so we left it alone. The next morning it was partially off so I decided to just take it off. I didn't give her any warning. I felt terrible but it was over before she realized what I was doing. Yes she was mad but it was off & she got over it when I told her she could throw it away. There was some bruising really not all that bad they were able to get access the first try. I don't know if you can tell but the part that looks the worse is from the tape.

Her groin, again looks pretty good. Only one poke there as well. The glue residue is dark because I put jeans on her the day after I took off the bandage. We were suppose to take off the pressure dressing the day before & then put on a bandade but I decided to wait & do it in the bath. It was not an easy thing. I tried to work it off a slowly but the 2nd time Payton told me 'NO MAMA, NO MO OWEY!', yelled it to me is a little more accurate. So I explained that it had to come off & it would be better if I pulled it off really fast. She completely understood because she started crying, holding her leg & saying no. So she really didn't like that idea either but I wasn't going to make her wait. So with one smooth pull it was off & she was pissed! The worst was the look that she gave me. So I got a big wet hug from her & held her till she stopped crying.

Now she is completley over it. We go into to see Dr. Adhoot this afternoon so that he can check to see if everything is healing properly. Hopefully we will find out when the surgery will be but we'll see. If I get any new info I'll post it. Thanks for all of your support & prayers.

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So there you have it!

I am SO EXCITED for the movie. I won't go into it because I don't want you to think I'm weird... but if there is anyone that wants to see it opening night with me... with out husbands or kids... let me know!

Heart Cath

Payton has weathered another procedure wonderfully. Since my sister Melissa did such a wonderful job with the details I don't have anything else to add. Payton had no clue what she was in for... she was just so glad to have Daddy there with us! And I was so glad that Donald's boss gave him the day off!
Below was after Payton had the 'Happy Juice' & she was able to start relaxing. They let her keep her blanket & her baby & she was so funny. We walked with them down to the Cath Lab & some nurses came out to meet us. They were telling her how cute her hair was & all she wanted to do was show them her baby & have them kiss her baby. They said that she 'chatted' with them about her baby until she was put under anesthesia.
They went in & decided not to do anything work & just took the pre-surgery pictures & readings. The work they would have done would be better taken care of during surgery so they didn't want to do anything that would keep her in the hospital longer... hey & I'm all for that.
She was so agitated for what seemed like forever & then Donald picked her up & she was asleep instantly. You can see above that her baby's legs where a pillow for a little while (the body is the only soft part of the baby). She was able to sleep for about 1 1/2 hours.
When she woke up she was a completely different girl. She was happy & told some of the nurses, 'My Happy' when they came up. Talk about 180 degree turn. I was just glad that she was in a better mood. It is always good to see people we know. One of the Nurse Practioners stopped by & a member of our ward, Annie Koop was the nurse for a child 2 beds away so we got to chat with her a couple of times.
She did have nausea from the anesthesia for a while. The first meal she kept down was at 4:45p which was perfect because we knew her stomach was settled before she went to bed at 8:30p.
Here she is happy & at home. I ended up taking a nap just in case she has a bad night. I'm optimistic, well at least slightly!
She has a pressure dressing on her neck & in her right groin. Those have to stay on until tomorrow afternoon & then she'll need a band aid for another 24 hours on the groin site. She has a little bit of bruising but not too bad. The skin around her left eye is irritated, probably from tape, it looks like she got sucker punched or something.

So the surgery will be sometime in Novemeber. Dr. Adhoot would like to see it happen in the 1st 2 weeks but we'll see when she can get on the schedule. We are just SO HAPPY to be home & so glad that Payton is doing well.

Thanks for your thoughts & prayers!

Update on Payton's Heart Cath

Payton’s heart cath procedure is complete and she is in recovery. They were able to access a vein in her neck as the entry point so she should only need to be monitored for 4-5 hours, if all goes well they should be on their way home between 2-4pm. Once they got inside and started to look around they decided that she WILL need to have her 3rd open heart surgery at the beginning of November. So, this was more of a pre-op procedure rather than an intensive one like the last heart cath. That is the short update. For a more technical update read on.

Typically the point of the heart cath is to widen any openings that have narrowed and to close any collateral arteries that the body has created. (Collateral arteries are arteries that the heart creates to improve blood flow when the pressure inside the heart increases.) During Payton’s previous heart cath they widened an artery but within the following months it narrowed again. Because of this narrowing the heart created large collateral arteries to deal with the added pressure. Fortunately, these arteries went where they were supposed to go (the main artery takes blood to in inferior vena cava and so do the new collateral arteries). According to Dr. Adhoot, Payton’s heart has been working like this for over a year.

The narrowing occurred because of scar tissue build up from the previous surgery site. Because they now know how her body deals with scar tissue they will be able to fix the connection during her next surgery so this does not happen again. They did NOT balloon/widen the artery or close any of the larger collateral arteries because they will be taken care of during her surgery.

Her primary cardiologist, Dr. Burke, is out of town until Nov. 2nd, so they will wait for him to return before having the surgery. The surgery will be scheduled and Jenn and Donald will meet with the surgeon, Dr. Starnes, before he gets back.

Hopefully all of the medical jargon makes sense. Jennifer said she will post tonight after Payton is asleep (with pictures). I may post before then, but we'll have to see. Thanks for checking in on our sweet Payton. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

Aunt Melissa

Count Down to the Cath

On Wednesday we will be checking into the hospital at 5:30am. Payton will get to put on a cute little hospital robe. The only difference in the picture below is that she won't start out with the oxygen on... also she won't be so at ease. I know that she will suspect something & be on edge.

Her cath should start at 7am & we hope that it will take around 2 or 3 hours & not 5 hours like it was last time. At our consult I asked if it will take as long. Dr. Adhoot couldn't predict anything, obviously, but he did say that because she is bigger he should have an easier time maneuvering around... so we will wait & see what happens. I laughed when he said this because it is completely opposite from my perspective because the older she gets the more difficult she becomes... where are my priorities? ;)

The Cath is suppose to be an outpatient procedure but last time it took her a while to recover because the Cath took so long. We were able to leave by the next morning.

We hope that things will go as smoothly as it did last time but with every procedure there are always risks involved. We would like to invite you to join us in fasting for Payton. Your prayers & efforts are appreciated!

For updates as to how Payton is doing on the day of the Cath please check our blog. It will be updated as we receive updates throughout the day.

Moral of the story... Never give a reason!

We went to Walmart today to pick up a few items & we always go by the fish to say hi. While there a customer was buying a fish & Payton looked at me & said 'Out'.
Not sure if she realized that they could come out of the tanks before this.
"No Payton, Fish stays in."
"Fish out"
"Fish needs to stay with his friends or he'll be sad."
That made her think... "no fish mine" she pointed & then pretended to hug one.
This was obviously not going anywhere so I said that "it was time to go & Mommy didn't have any money for buying fish".
This has worked in the past when preparing to leave toys & books at the store but I was not prepared for what came out of her mouth next.
Her face lit up, she reached into her pocket & pulled out a quarter & a penny & said...
"Mine Meen (money) Fish" She handed the money to me & smiled at me & I smiled back & she knew she won!
Miraculously an S appeared on my forehead with a neon sign flashing the word SUCKER & a sucker was born right there in front of the fish at Walmart! Apparently I will have to change my tactics & Never Give A Reason.

I already had the decor for inside the tank. I had to buy the 2 fish .20 cents each, the bowl $7.99, rocks $1.69, & food $1.99. There's my justification... does it work still? It did while in the store but hopefully it will still work when Donald gets home & discovers that we have 2 new members of the family. :) We had to go to petsmart for the rocks & they had the little goldfish for .12c each... so with the .26c she gave me I could have purchased 2 fish.

The one fish is distorted a little in the picture. One is orange & the other is white & orange.

And Kristin, yes I may be wrapped around her finger but you have to admit she's got talent, or at least I was impressed! It helped that I knew I wouldn't spend more than $10-$15. It's the most inexpensive pet & if she looses interest then I didn't invest that much, so no guilt & if she doesn't we will end up with a bigger, self cleaning tank that I wanted to eventually get anyway. The problem right now is that she won't leave them alone so they are a little freaked out right now... & not eating... OMG I have set myself up for the "Fish went to Jesus by way of the toilet" talk! Okay maybe there are still a few kinks in the plan... :)

General Conference....

With 2 toddlers around we didn't get to hear a lot of the talks even though it was on. There were moments where they completely entertained themselves. Who knew laundry baskets would provide 30 minutes of mostly quiet conference time.

I love this picture below! The kids liked Elder Wirthlin's talk on happiness & finding joy. Yep our kids are all about happiness & joy. It oozes from them. They listened (at least for a few moments) & it was so cute!

Here Payton is protecting her 'babies' like a momma bear protecting her cubs. As you may guess there were moments of happiness & joy but they didn't last for very long. Her baby Pooh Bear has been the hot ticket item this weekend, which is why she is only gripping Pooh Bear.

Sneaking Food Already!?!

I left some raisins on the table & Payton found them. I guess she felt like she was being pretty sneaky because when I saw her she giggled. She getting practice in for when she wants to sneak something really yummy...

I'm not suggesting raisins are yummy. At least to me they are REALLY yummy! Honestly I'm just glad when she takes the initiative & eats. Force feeding an almost 3 year old is not my favorite past time.

Zoo

Payton got well just in time to go to the Zoo with her cousins before they went back to Redlands. She was so funny, my girl who HATES hats wore Casey's hat almost the entire time!

Ryan was such a big boy... he walked for the first 45 minutes at our pace. His cute little legs were working so hard!

We ended up at the park because everything was CLOSED. The Gorilla Enclosure was being worked on & the Bird Show doesn't happen Tuesdays, they use that day to train the birds. So we walked to the back edge of the Zoo so the kids could play & Melissa and I could take a break.

Ryan was the only one that would take a picture on the camel.

Ryan ended up in the stroller with Payton. They were pretty tolerant of being that close to each other most of the time.

This picture below is so sweet!
I love Casey's faces, especially how he smiles!
More to come soon!