Ready to play!

This baby was in bladder/kidney surgery less than 48 hours before this picture was taken. I heard babies bounce back fast, but this is wild! So, so thankful!! Annabel woke up after 13 hours of sleeping in her own bed through the night and wanted to play!

The worst is over!

Yay!! We are through the hardest part. After the last update, we still waited quite a while until we were able to see Annabel. It was so hard waiting!! If I knew where they had her, I probably would have busted in. Apparently she was being so good, too good. They had to aggravate her a little to get her to fuss when she was waking up from surgery.  I think she had them worried.

Anyway, it was so so great to finally see her. She was just staring, but she locked eyes with me and started grunting a little. I can't even tell you how thankful I was to see her and to know she knew I was there with her. We went back to our room and I was able to hold her and nurse her.

She actually wanted to play a little. It was fun for a while. She was smiling a little and playing a bit with her book and rattle.  The medicine she got (kind of like an epidural) was still in her system.  As it wore off, she definitely started feeling the pain.  I held her until about 10:30 while she went in and out of sleep and crying.  She finally got into a pretty good sleep, and I laid her down. She slept through the night pretty well and is doing OK this morning.

She is playing a little on her back. It is still evident she is in pain, but it must not be as intense as it was yesterday.

Thanks again, and again for all the prayer and support.  We have made it through the most difficult part and are on the road to recovery. Her kidneys seem to be functioning well and we should head home today after her last IV antibiotic early afternoon.   We won't know the success of the surgery on her ureter for months after she has really healed.  He made the decision not to fix the reflux while he was in there. So we will continue on the antibiotics until we can do a test (3-6 months down the road) to determine if it has healed (or improved) on its own (as it does sometimes), or if we need to do a small procedure to help it along. (Needs anesthesia but is quick and just a substance inserted through her urethra - no incisions!!)

I will update again as I can for those interested in the details.

She is out

Annabel is out of surgery and in recovery. We got a good report from the doctor. She still has two whole kidneys! I'll post details at some point. We haven't seen her yet...
Thanks again for your continued prayers and encouragement. We feel loved.

Update.

She is back in surgery now. Thank you everyone for your prayers. They have been felt beyond words.  It took quite a bit longer than we thought until we were able to hand her off to the doctors, which was a bit stressful on us.  Annabel on the other hand was busy checking everything out and making new friends.  The answered prayer is that she was a perfect angel the whole time. She hardly fussed about being hungry.

We met the nurses and doctors. They are all great and we feel so comfortable with them. The anesthesiologist is wonderful. He and his wife pray for his patients every morning! 

They took her back about 9 and she has a 4-hour block of time on the surgery schedule. We don’t know exactly how long it will take though.  We will update when we can.

Thank you for making us feel so loved and prayed over and for all your encouraging words.  We are so blessed by our friends and family!

Official time.

We received the call for the official time.  6:30am arrival and 8am surgery.

I am going to get up and feed her around 2am. She can nurse 6 hours before surgery.  It's a small thing, but pray she isn't too hungry on the way to the hospital. She is such a happy baby unless she is hungry!  It will be a hard enough drive/time at the hospital in the morning. It will be even harder if she is hungry and I can't feed her. 

Thank you!

Pre-Surgery Appointment

I scheduled an appointment for Annabel for today to have a last checkup before her surgery.  It was an act of faith because if the healing we had been praying for had occurred, there wouldn't have been a way to know until surgery started. My hope was that we would find a miracle today during the ultrasound, but unfortunately that was not God's plan. I have prayed so hard for her to be healed and I know many of you have prayed along side of us.  Thank you!

But, God is still in control.  As Jesus said (obviously on a much grander scale than what the urologist stated was a fairly common surgery), "not my will, but Yours be done."

I just have to hang onto this: "...for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:10 ESV

God's plan is bigger and better than we know. Keep praying for her little body and the wisdom of the doctors and assistants that will be caring for her on Thursday.  Dr. Perez did say today that it looked likely that she could loose half of her kidney because of the size of her ureter and the damage to that half of the kidney.  But he said it really could go either way.  Lets pray he can fix it all at her bladder and not have to make the second incision to get to her kidney and possibly remove half of it.

With love. Corinne

Keep praying for Annabel

Annabel's surgery is coming up in less then two weeks.  It will take place on May 5th, the National Day of Prayer. Feel free to add her to any prayer lists!!

We are continuing to pray for healing.

"Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.  And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working." James 14-16 ESV

We have so many wonderful people in our lives with such deep and vibrant faith. We covet your prayers right now.  Pray that she will be healed. Our hope and prayer is that this happens before her surgery. Her last appointment, and last pre-op ultrasound where they can see the state of her kidney and ureter will take place on Monday, May 2nd. 


If she does head to surgery on May 5th, specific prayers along with healing are for Dr. Perez (her wonderful urologist), the anesthesiologist, and their assistants.  The surgery should take place in the morning around 9 and could last around 3 hours.  We will have an official time next Wednesday. The anesthesiologist apparently takes the youngest patient first so the schedule can shift. She is always so happy - until she gets hungry. It will be hard enough. I really don't want to see her upset! 


Thank you so much.

April

Life has been busy but good. April 13th Dylann turned 3 years old!  We celebrated several times...

• at home the weekend before...

• on Her birthday (Fort Fisher Ferry to Southport)...

 

• and the following weekend at "G's Chuck E. Cheese"...

She is officially a sassy 3 year old!!

We celebrated Easter (a weekend early) with Nanny and Papa.

 Then the girls and I were off to Charleston to hang out with my Mom while my dad is working down in Costa Rica.

Now back in Charlotte to celebrate Easter at home with Daddy.

It's been a fun month! 

this is Dylann telling her secrets to her giraffe (5 months old)

this is Annabel telling secrets to her zebra (4 months old)