Quick Update!

We took Emma Kate to see Dr. Stone (pedi) on Tuesday to follow up on her ear infection. She has been acting so much better the past several days, thankfully! She's been such a sweetheart, smiling and laughing at us all the time. I really feel like she's showing us her little personality. She's always happy, that sweet girl. While we were at the doctor's we had blood drawn. This was just to check to see if she is anemic before her heart catheterization next week. Everything looks normal!

After the visit with Dr. Stone, we went to visit Dr. Law, her cardiologist. Brooks got to come with us, too. Again, everything looks great. The blood flow looks good and the squeeze of her heart is good, too. Apparently the regurgitation in her tricuspid valve is looking better, also, due to the increase in her medications. Dr. Law also looked at her aorta and said that sometimes the aortic arch might narrow as time goes on, and if it does, they can use a ballooning procedure during the cath to stretch it out a bit. However, her echo did not reveal anything to give him reason to believe that this will be the case next week. Yay!

I spoke with a nurse about Emma Kate's cath, which is next Thursday. We will be able to walk her down to the lab. They will give her medication to sedate her for the procedure. This procedure will tell us how her heart is doing from the inside, if that makes sense. It will measure pressures, blood flow, take pictures, etc. This is a fairly routine procedure, but I am still pretty nervous about it. I mean, inserting a probe into the groin and going up into the heart sounds a bit scary to me. But I know that they know exactly what they're doing and I have fully confidence in them! Please keep Emma Kate in your prayers next week!

After the cath we will know more about when her Glenn (2nd surgery) will be. Dr. Law's prediction was the beginning of January. We have no way of knowing for sure, though, until he sends all of the info over to Atlanta for Dr. Kirshbom (surgeon) to review. Of course, I'll update as soon as we know.

We're glad things seem to be going so well with Emma Kate. We're so proud of her. She has discovered her hands and is always grabbing things now. Not really reaching for them yet, but she's sucking on her fingers holding on tight to toys, etc. She is such a flirt, too. She smiles at just about everyone she sees. She admires her big sister so much. She's always watching what she's doing. I have been trying to put her on her tummy more often, and I think she'll start rolling over soon once she gets a bit stronger. She is a wiggle-worm. She loves her Bumbo chair, which allows her to sit up and look around. :)

Okay, time to go to bed! This "quick" update took me almost an hour to do! Thank you all for you love and support and prayers! We will keep you posted!