Congrats

Congratulations are in order!! Uncle Jason and Aunt 'Chelle are proud parents of Braeden Alan. He weighed 8lbs and 10oz. Now we have three little boys in our family. A couple more and we can start a baseball team. Happy Halloween and be safe!

Damon

Damon is doing really well and he is starting to pull up on things. It won't be very long before he is walking around. I have got to share a funny story. We were at church last night and Damon was really cranky. So Sarah went to the back of the church to hold him. He continued to be cranky, until Myles ran back there. As soon as Myles did that Damon starting laughing and smiling all over the place. And as soon as Myles would leave he would get cranky and then when Myles went back he was laughing again. They have such a bond with each other. We are so blessed to have a wonderful boys to always make us smile.
We will be putting all of Damon's birthday party information on the website. So be looking for that.

Jeremy & family

Post-Op Check-Up

Today little Damon is going to his cardiologist to have follow up visit after his procedure last week. Damon seems unfazed by all of this stuff. I can't imagine going through what he has and yet keep a smile on my face. He is pulling up on things and eating more and more each day. Damon is a really strong boy and helps our family to laugh and smile.
Uncle Jason and Aunt 'Chelle are also going to the doctor today to see when baby Brayden is going to arrive. Her due date is Saturday, so please keep them in your prayers. I remember when both Myles and Damon were born. Of course Myles' birth was under less stressful circumstances, but both were special none the less. Through Damon's circumstances I have learned to enjoy each and every moment, even the smallest things are special to me.
If anything comes up with Damon's tests I will be sure to update.

Talk to you soon,
Jeremy & family

Home again

We got home today about 5pm. Damon woke up last night around 6:30 and he was pretty cranky. We had thought he could get up around 6:30 from his flat time but then they came in and said he still had two more hours until he could get up. He drank some pedialite and then he drank a bottle and fell right back to sleep and didn't wake up again until 6:30 this morning. It was a long night for me though, the other little boy in the room kept crying and coughing and his monitors were going off all night. I didn't sleep very well, but what can you expect in the hospital right?

We left STL at noon and had a non eventful ride home. I sat in the back seat with Damon most of the way home and he and I played and watched Milo and Otis for a while. I was worried about him being in a bad mood today when he woke up and that he would be really clinging to Jeremy and I after his time up there, but it doesn't seem to have bothered him all that much. We're so grateful for how well everything went and we give God all the credit. Talk to you all later.

Sarah

Update

Damon is done with his cath. He came back to his room about 2:30 or so, I can't remember exactly. They couldn't find the pulse in his left foot so they thought they were going to have to give him a blood thinner, but then someone came in and was checking again and they found it so they canceled the order for the blood thinner. He is pretty sedated and he has to lie flat on his back until 8:30 tonight and he can't have anything to eat for a while, I think he should be able to eat around 9pm. Hopefully he will stay out of it that whole time because it's easier on all of us if he does.

The good news is that once they got in there, they couldn't find any thing at all wrong with his pulminary artery so they didn't have to place a stent, they didn't even have to balloon it. I know I have been praying that God would heal that area and that there would not be a need for anything to be done there and I know others have prayed for that same thing as well. My God DELIVERS!!! And He is FAITHFUL!!!

The not so good news is that our friend (or not so good friend) the aortic coartation has returned. That is the narrow spot on his aorta that has been ballooned 4 times now including today. The dr said that after she ballooned it, she looked at the blood flow again and it didn't look like it had made that much difference so in her opinion it wouldn't do any good for that spot to be ballooned again. That means that if it continues to cause a problem before he is big enough for a stent to be placed there it would have to be fixed surgically. If it holds off until he's a little bigger, then a stent can be placed and all will be well. And he will set off every metal detector at every airport from then on. The dr said she was going to draft a letter to Dr Tong and let him know to be watching some things closely to make sure everything is ok. So, all you prayers, focus some of your prayers on that pesky aorta and it's narrow spot and ask God to sustain it until Damon is a little bigger. Surgery on his aorta, we're told, is a very big deal and we don't want to have to do that. We'll try to update later tonight or tomorrow sometime. Talk to you all later.

Sarah

Heart Cath

We got to STL yesterday about 11am and Damon had his ekg, echo, and xray. He was a really good boy for all of it. We were done about 2:30 and hadn't heard from RMH yet so we decided to just drive by and see if we were going to get a room. They did have one for us so we got settled in there. Damon was in such a good mood last night, smiling at everyone and playing. We got to see our friends Liam and his mom Christina, whom we've stayed at RMH with before. Liam is still waiting on his new kidney but is doing well.

We got to the hospital today at 9:30 and had to wait about 15 minutes for our room to be ready upstairs. Then after we got to our room we had to wait about 2 hours for them to come and get Damon for his cath. He went back to the cath lab about 12:15pm. He wasn't too upset about going with the dr, but he started to cry a little bit when they walked thru the door. The nurse just came in and told us that they have him asleep and everything is going fine. She said when they layed him down he started to scream because he didn't want to lay down. They are supposed to update us every hour so when they give us another update, I'll try to make a new post.

Good news though, Damon didn't have to go under general anesthesia or be on the ventilator which is what we first thought. He is just heavily sedated. We were really grateful for that information. Please keep sending up your prayers for him.

Sarah

Watch the news!

As I mentioned on the last post, CMN and KSN news are doing a little story on Damon. It is supposed to be airing on the 5pm news (and maybe the 6pm news) on KSN, channel 16 tomorrow, Tuesday the 16th. We haven't seen it yet so we are excited to watch. If you won't be able to catch the news tomorrow, we are going to get a copy of it on DVD so let us know if you want to see it.

Damon will be 11 months old tomorrow. I can't believe that he's almost a year old. It seems like such a long time since we've been in the hospital with him. He is so much older now and doing so much more and he is settling into his own little personality. I don't look forward to him making him go thru this cath on Thursday. He's not going to understand and I know he will be miserable in the hospital. Sometimes I feel like it's harder for Jeremy and I than for him. He won't remember any of this when he's older but it's burned in our memories forever.

We covet your prayers so much this week. For safe travel, for Myles to be ok while we're gone, and mostly for Damon. We want God to heal this artery and there will be no need for any stents, but if that doesn't happen, pray for him to get thru this procedure safely with no complications. Talk ot you later.

Sarah

TV

Damon has been doing well since we last posted. He has another tooth, so that makes 7 total. We are going up to STL on Wednesday of next week for his echo, ekg and xray and then the heart cath is scheduled for Thursday. Please keep him in your prayers for everything to go well with no complications and pray for God to heal that pulminary artery so that he doesn't need a stent.

Children's Miracle Network chose us for their miracle child family for October and last night KSN news came and videotaped us answering questions about Damon and about how CMN has helped us out. They will edit it into a short little video and it's supposed to be on the early (5pm) edition of the news sometime next week. The word is that it will air on Tuesday the 16th, but I'm not for sure yet. I'm going to try to find out for sure when and then I'll let everyone know. We were glad to be able to do this for CMN. They are such a huge help to us and to countless others. If you have some money you need to donate and you aren't sure where to send it, check them out. They are a great organization. Everybody take care and talk to you soon.

Sarah

Calendar

About a month or maybe two ago, I sent in a picture of Damon to an organization called Saving Little Hearts. They put out a calendar every year with pictures of kids and adults born with a CHD. The calendars are available for purchase right now and the website says they should be shipped out in mid October sometime. I'm not sure how much they are. If you go to www.savinglittlehearts.com and you click on the 2008 Calendar link you can preview each of the months and Damon's picture is on April. He's the 2nd from the left on the very top row. There are going to be some other little ones on there that we have come to know. I know for sure that Cade is on there, but I haven't found his picture yet.

Please pray for all of us, especially for protection over Damon during his cath procedure. Everytime I think about it I get a big knot in my stomach and I get so scared for him. I don't know why this time I have so much more fear. I know God is in control this time, just like all the others, I'm just having a hard time remembering that I guess. So pray. Talk to you later.

Sarah

Hanging In

No new news is not necessarily a bad thing. Damon is doing well as much as Sarah and I can tell. His appetite sure hasn't suffered. Last Friday night at the Carl Junction football game he ate a whole hotdog. Then last night he ate a grilled cheese sandwich, 2 bowls of applesauce, and a whole breakfast bar. All I can say is if he is hungry you better have food in front of him or he will let you know about it. Damon is such a cute boy and such a blessing in our lives.
Please be praying for a baby at our church, her name is Allie. She has been having trouble gaining weight and the doctors have switch her formula like 5 times. So finally then went to Children's Mercy in Kansas City, MO. So we have reached out to them because we know how it feels to be in an unfamiliar place when your child is sick. Allie's parents names are Tiffany and Shane. Please lift them up in your prayers today, they will need it in the coming days.
Other than that we are just hanging in and counting the days leading up to Damon's visit to St. Louis. We are praying for a good report whenever we get up there. It just makes my heart ache to have him go up there again, but we know it is in his best interest. We will post again soon.

Jeremy and family