Hope

I have decided that I am not a good blogger at all.  I'll think about sitting down to write a post, but then life gets in the way and six months go by since my last update!  All is well with us, but it's been a crazy couple months.  But, let me back up because the week we are entering needs a little explanation.  We celebrated Sophie's 2nd birthday on July 28th and it was wonderful.  Yet, two days later she got a fever and was hospitalized for SVT (rapid heart rate) which we then discovered seemed to be triggered by fever since the same thing had happened a couple months prior.  This time, however, her heart rate had not come down by the time we got to Children's and she had to stay overnight.  There was a new medicine added and then we were sent home.  Our fall season was calm, but busy.  Kayla and Madelyn started school again, 2nd grade and Kindergarten, and were both playing soccer and taking swim lessons.  We had a wonderful Christmas, but the day after...Sophie got a fever again.  It seems that any time she has a growth spurt and outgrows her medicine dose...a fever sends her heart rate up in the 200s.  Very scary.  This time we spent 5 hours at Fauquier Hospital's ER before being transported to Children's for the next two nights.  Needless to say something needed to change and her cardiologist advised that it was time to go forth with scheduling a catheter ablation to cure this heart arrythmia once and for all.  He had wanted to wait until she was a little older and see if medicine could keep it at bay for the time being, but after three trips to the hospital in eight months we were ALL ready to try something else.

So here we are...three days away from her heart surgery.  It is an outpatient procedure so we are hoping she won't have to stay overnight, but it will depend on how it all goes that day.  They will make an incision in her groin area and put a catheter up through the vein that leads to her heart.  They will do a study to find out where exactly the extra electrical pathway is that causes her heart rate to spike and then do the ablation to get rid of it.  And if all goes well...she will be CURED!!!  This weekend we are weaning her off of both heart medicines so they don't mask the arrythmia at all.  There is a 90% success rate for this procedure and we are ever hopeful and praying that it goes smoothly.  Sophie has been taking medicine every day of her life, for seizures or heart arrythmia, so one exciting thing is that Tuesday will be her first medicine free day EVER.  I will be more satisfied on Thursday if we are home with a cured little girl who doesn't need any medicine unless she is sick.  Another big milestone for us is that it has been a year this week since she took her last seizure medicine.  Almost 2 1/2 years seizure free and 1 year with no medicine at all...PRAISE GOD!!

Please keep us all in your prayers on Wednesday, February 27th as Sophie heads for surgery for the second time in her little life.  It has been a rough past two months as we were trying to keep her healthy and fever free until her surgery, yet life threw us multiple colds, ear infections, one case of the flu, and one case of strep.  Yet she remained healthy and I am so grateful for that.  But, it has been stressful for me.  I feel like once I get through Wednesday I will be able to breathe again.  It's hard not to think "what if the surgery isn't a success...what about that 10%...what if something happens to her during surgery" but I keep turning to God trusting that He wouldn't lead us on this path if it wasn't the right one for us.  He has yet to steer us the wrong way.  I think back to Sophie's early months when I didn't think life would ever be the same.  That we would have a very sick child who wouldn't be able to do all the things that other kids can.  We have been blessed more that we ever imagined.  She is the shining light in our lives who continues to hit all the milestones that kids are "supposed" to.  Sometimes they are a little later than usual, but I believe that God planned all along for Sophie to do things her own way and in His timing.

Oh, and that same sick baby girl from 2 1/2 years ago?  I am looking at preschools for her to go to in the fall.  She knows her letters, numbers, colors, shapes and can recite full episodes of Dora and Bubble Guppies. :)

Our God is bigger than any diagnosis or outlook a doctor can deliver.  Take that Tuberous Sclerosis!