Another quick update - - his heart rythm is back to normal and they have started to wean off the medication that is helping him. The rythm is still holding too. He also had his chest tube removed and his foley catheter ( the one draining his bladder) removed.

The biggest joy we had was when he finally pee-pee'd without the catheter. It was no easy event for him. They are giving him a diuretic (stuff to make you pee) because he has a little bit of fluid in one side of his lungs. That was making his bladder distend and become painful. Since he had the catheter in, his penis was painful too. But after much perseverence we struck gold!!! You would have thought that he was having a baby. He immediately fell to sleep after the big ordeal and continues to slumber as I type.

They also stopped the fentanyl (a narcotic like morphine) and started him on an IV equivalent to ibuprofen, as well he can take tylenol with codeine as needed.

He is also starting to cough which is another good little step towards getting home. I think the heart dysrythmia will be the slowest common factor. We'll keep you updated

Just for fun, here is a picture from two years ago of Andrew, its one of my favorites. I can't put any recent pictures up because this computer is incapable.

Well Andrew got most of his tubes taken out today. He had to be put under just a bit today to cauterize a little bleeding from his chest insicion, but that went well. His heart rythms have been getting more and more irregular, but have not been symtomatic. So we will be in the ICU for another day at least but still shooting for only a four day stay at the hospital. They have had to start a medication drip to help the dysrythmia, so we'll see how well that goes. He still has a chest tube to drain the fluid around the heart, and a catheter in his bladder. Thanks for all your support, we'll send the messages along.

Well I am sure most if not all of you know that Andrew is done with his surgery. He is doing quite well. His main complaint is that he is "super super duper duper thirsty". Considering all the other possible things he could be complaining of, I am quite satisfied with that one.

He has been oozing a little more than normal from his surgical site so he has had to get a blood transfusion, and other blood products that help you clot. It shouldn't be to much of a problem by tomorrow.

I am posting this from his room, so you can check back here or call Mom and Dad for updates. We can't have our cell phones on in the intensive care unit making it hard to reach us. Love you all and thank you for your prayers and support.

Off to Battle!!!

Our little Andrew goes in this Thursday for open heart surgery. He has a congenital heart defect named a "mitral valve cleft". Simply put, it is a whole in his mitral valve, the valve between the left ventricle and left atrium. The cleft/whole is large enough that it has caused his ventricle to enlarge faster than he is growing. So he'll get a sternotomy (saw open his sternum/breast bone), his heart and lungs will be stopped and he'll be put on a heart-lung machine. They'll make an incision into the atrium, sew the cleft together and then close everything on the way out. He should be in the hospital for about four days, hopefully coming home on Monday.

Came across some funny videos on you tube.

Potter Puppet Pals in "The Mysterious Ticking Noise"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx1XIm6q4r4&feature=related

Hahaha -baby laughing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P6UU6m3cqk&feature=related
If Kevin had strawberry blonde hair, we could've sworn this was Jenny's baby

Happy Laughing

The Big One

Just a quick preview of the most recent pictures I have taken of Eric. This is his science project.

More Later...

So I thought that I would put some photos up of the children, starting with Eric. Here is Eric and Andrew fighting over a door, yet polite enough to look at Dad as he snaps a photo.

















Eric did his last Pinewood Derby. He wanted to do Perry the Platypus, from the Disney Channel's Phineous and Ferb. We thought is was a pretty cool car.

Taking time I don't have to blog = no captions

Here is this years rendition of the Christmas letter (sans the photos). Rumor is that the second page did not print for some, otherwise you should all have received a copy of it in the mail. If you didn't get the back/second page( or any letter at all), let us know and we will resend it.

Dearest Family and Friends,

We hope you are all doing well. We have had an exciting year! This year we went to two wonderful family reunions, we got a new niece and two new nephews, visited the Oregon Coast, visited cousins, threw up at a baseball game, “did the Puyallup” Fair, got two little kittens, ran over one (by accident), and then got another one. We got new callings, got teeth fixed and straightened, went to piano lessons and recitals, went to gymnastics and competitions and got to see how Harry Potter finally conquered Lord Voldemort. We went on a private airplane, and big airplanes and even a helicopter! We battled rodents, the oral boards, wind storms, and even a gigantic spider under Rachel’s bed! We traveled to Maui and Kauai and snorkeled, scuba dived, body surfed, boogie boarded, swam with turtles, hula danced on stage, survived the road to Hanna, and ate amazing food, and even got to see Scott’s parents scuba dive in the shark tank at the Maui aquarium!

Scott Brian – 3? Years old, enjoys family, photography, loud music, anything to do with being in water, eating his wife’s food, watching sports, playing sports, and putting people to sleep. He is serving as the 1^st counselor in the Elder’s Quorum, and keeps himself busy with studying, his ever-growing honey-do list, and of course, work. He specializes in making his wife happy, the touchy sump pump in the crawl space, and taking out body piercings. Scott dislikes putting on sunscreen, traveling behind a slow car, and the oral boards.

Wendy Jeanne – 32 years old, enjoys her children and family, teen music, books, cooking, “chick flicks”, shopping, being warm, and spending alone time with Scott. She is serving as 2^nd counselor in Primary, and keeps herself busy with yard work, house work, chauffeuring, nursing, shopping, cooking, public relations, and fanatical manager jobs.(In other words, being a mother) She specializes in brushing teeth, killing spiders, and making pizza. Wendy dislikes driving with Scott while he is behind a slow car, and the oral boards.

Eric Scott- 10 years old, enjoys playing by himself, drawing, playing with the cats, reading, anything to do with being in the water, Bionicles, Science and Robots. He keeps himself busy playing piano, playing drums, Webelos, doing homework, doing chores and pretty soon, basketball. Eric specializes in trying to make his mom happy and coming up with wonderful plans and ideas. Eric dislikes most dinners, Rachel singing, and not having his own room.

Rachel “Rose”- 7 years old, enjoys singing, writing in her journal, her mom’s music, cooking, dancing, playing games, and gymnastics. She keeps herself busy playing the piano, doing homework, gymnastics and playing. Rachel specializes in giving hugs, being a peacemaker, and being sweet. Rachel dislikes waking up to her alarm clock, and being far away from her cousins.

Andrew Robert- 4 years old, enjoys Crazy Frog, dancing, eating, running, swimming, and being a boy. He is our independent spirit. He keeps himself busy! Andrew Specializes in pretty much anything he wants to. He just got diagnosed with a hole in one of his main heart valves, and will have surgery sometime before he is 10. We will keep you all posted, but it sure isn’t slowing him down. He has a great personality and is very charismatic. He dislikes being too young to drive, and too young to go to ]-->school. (In that order.)

Brian Gerald- 2 years old enjoys his brothers and sister, getting butterfly kisses, driving in Dad’s convertible, wearing Rachel’s jewelry, and wearing his shoes. He keeps himself busy running after Andrew and trying to do whatever he is doing. Brian specializes in cute, cheesy smiles, loving his grandmas, and baby sign. Brian dislikes being poopy, falling down, and not having his shoes on.

Merry Christmas everyone. We love you all!!

Hawaii Trip

Wendy recently posted this on her myfamily.com site. Thought I would pass it along



I typed for and hour, and accidently pushed return, and lost all of it. I was am pretty upset about loosing that much, so I am going to sum up.Started in Kaua'i, went snorkling, boogy boarding, went on a helicopter ride, drove to see the "grand cayon" of that island, ate at great places, and tried all the local fish and fruits. After 3 days we flew to Maui and drove the road to Hana, saw black and red sand beaches, Scott took his first Scuba lesson and did a dive with his mom and dad. We enjoyed a luou, (lots of great food, and amazing dancers). Scott, his dad, Eric and I went and snorked at Mulukini, a half moon crater island out by Maui, saw great fish. We also snorkled with about 5 sea turtles, 2 of which started mating, and we saw 2 males fight over the one feamale in heat. Apparently one bit the other one. We drove up to the top of Haleakala (the volcano), then went trick-or-treating. We took the kids on a little underwater boat and got to show them lots of fish. More beaches and snorkling. We then went to the Maui Aquarium where Scott's parents dove in their huge shark and sting ray tank. They picked up stark teeth for the kids. We got to watch them the whole time. The largest shark was a tiger shark 7 feet long. It was memorable. It was fun and very busy!Sorry it isn't very detailed, my other entry was. I am typed out. Love you allWendy


This was her post on Oct 16:
"Hey, I have to leave to go visiting teaching pretty soon so I will keep this short. We took Andrew to the Ped. Cardiologist yesterday because Scott heard a pretty loud murmur. After the echocardiogram, it was discovered that Andrew has a cleft in one of his chamber valves. His heart has to work a bit harder because the valve is less efficient then a normal valve would be. He will eventually have surgury on his heart when the cardiologist feels is neccessary, but for now it will be monitered every 6 months. Well I do have to go. Love you all."

I replied to it with this:
The technical term is an isolated "mitral valve cleft". They are usually associated with other congenital heart defects. Andrew doesn't have any of those other defects. Heather you are right, the first time we heard the murmur was at Dr. Stump's office when Andrew was sick. But we hadn't heard it before and we think it would go away, or least be not as audible, when he was better. But he was playing around with my stethescope the other day and wanted me to listen to his heart. As I did I noticed he had it again, but Andrew proceeded to get sick that night so I wasn't too worried except that I thought it was louder than before. I also could not tell where the murmur was originating from in the heart. So a few days later I pulled out the stethescope again and low and behold it was still there with the same volume if not louder. We got an appointment, the cardiologist couldn't place the murmur either by listening and the fact that I thought it was getting louder got Andrew an echocardiogram and the mitral valve cleft is what we found. It is rare enought that I can't find a picture on the internet to show you. So for now we will be watchfully waiting."


Most recently, I found my theme song
My colleague sent this to our group, thought it would be great to pass along.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=xuZl9tRqjoQ

p.s. This is by a group called "Amateur Transplants". This is the only song from them I would listen to. We started to listen to another and there were really bad words in it. The above link/song is very clean.

Here we are on our last day in Hawaii. This is a beach in Maui just a couple of minutes from the resort that we stayed at in Kipei.

The Puyallup Fair

We went to the Puyallup Fair. We went twice this season, once with grandma and grandpa and once with Tyler & Cassidy Nelson and their kids. We met Christopher and Marie Liddell there with Cheyenne. Pictures are below

These are pictures I actually took from my brothers blog. We neglected to bring a camera.

Here we are at the petting zoo and on the Merry-go round

Testing the new BLOG for SWERABN

Moving into another undiscovered realm on the Internet. This is to test my "skills"
The picture on the right is at Lake Couer d' alene in Idaho. We were at a Ericksen Family Reunion. Nothing like being stranded with your children in a small canoe in the middle of a huge lake. They didn't have any paddles and were at my mercy- - gotta love it!

The picture on the left is the Puget Sound at low tide. There were crab (mostly dead), shells and sand dollars galore. We went with some friends and had a grand time.