Please keep those prayers coming

Chloe started having a lot more difficulty breathing tonight before the 800pm visit. She was breating about 100 times a minute and oxygen levels dropped to the 60-low 70 range and lower at times. Sadly she did turn a little blue. well any blue is too much blue for your little baby but anyways. So they reintubated her and put her back on the ventilator. she is on room air. the ventilator ws to just help manage her respiratory rate and cardiac output since there is a lot going on with her heart and lungs right now. so it's hard for her to keep things balanced.
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but anyways she is doing alot better now. pinked all up. sats are better. breathing 30 times a minute(well the vent is breathing completely for her right now). her blood gasses are alot better now as well. We are gonna wait a day or so and monitor her, do another echo tomorrow, and keep check on her oxygen levels, and pH level.

So just keep all of us in your prayers. Praise God for his love and understanding becuase it was HE that gave his son so that all of us can have life and have it more abundantly...even in the bad times we can still be joyful.

The Anchor Holds
John 16:33

Gonna have to quit writing these notes lol

First off let me let yall know that everything is fine. CHloe is still doing very good. They did another echo and said that structurally everythign still looks good (besides the VSD being there and having surgery haha) but even those look fine lol. He said her cardiac output and left ventrical are just a little wimpy. which will all get better with time. It kinda broke me a little cause I have been able to be so strong this whole time but I just feel let down cause we thought we were fixing to go to a room and now we have to stay another night in the ICU. just so they can monitor more closely but still just like another knife in the heart to me. I know God is here and with us. I know God is incontrol and that He will prevail. I know that God will get glory, honor, and praise out of our situation. It is just so so so hard. Please pray for strength for Jami and me. Please pray that we will seek God's will and lean on him. So that we don't make ourselves feel like we are alone. Cause we know we are not alone. We know that God is right here with us guiding our every move, word, and even our every breath. Help us to remember that the anchor of God has always held for us in the past and that we will always overcome with God leading us. and that the Anchor of God will always hold forever and ever amen.

As my mom always told me "it's just character building"...and like I said to her everytime "I have enough character". lol
I love you all. thank you agian for yalls continued prayers

Chloe is extubated YAY

Chloe is doing very well. She is off the ventilator and breathing well on her own. She is also off of the blood pressure medicine dopamine. YAY again hehehe. I will add more to this after lunch. I accidently deleted my first note i wrote this morning. haha. so will finish later.

ok so now its a day later lol. I was kinda distracted lol. but anyways...

Chloe has been breathing kinda hard and they increased her oxygen from room air to 30% which they say is very normal after this surgery. We are waiting for the cardiac surgeon to come by to release her from the ICU to the floor. but they have already taken out the art line, and chest tubes. So we are very excited and hopeful.

Praise God for all he is doing.

Chloe's surgery went well

Just talked with Dr. Kirklin, the cardiac surgeon who did Chloe's surgery, Chloe did well and we will be able to go see her any minute now. They had to do a little bit of reconstruction with the subclavian artery(the one that feeds the left arm) and it went well. put the band on her pulmonary artery(artery from heart to the lungs) to decrease the flow to her lungs so she doesn't get fluid on her lungs.

The blood flow had to be interupted to the lower half of the body for about 15-20 minutes so they decreased her temp to the low 90's to decrease damage done to the spinal cord and other organs. This made her heart a little more irritable and the putting the band on her PA sent her into A-Fib and SVT(different heart rhythms) and had to cardiovert her(shock her heart) 3 times. but was just from him aggitating the heart.

She is on dopamine at a low dose(expected), intubated, has an Art line(continuous blood pressure monitor), central line(big IV), 2 chest tubes, and is doing very well. pulses are all great.

God is good...all the time....all the time...God is good.
The Anchor Holds

Took Chloe to surgery at 0830

well should...you know how hospitals are. dont really wanna talk long but surgery should take about 2 hours. then she will be on the vent until she wakes up. because they dont reverse anestesia on babies(they said they arent mean to babies liek they are to adults lol). but anyways she should be on the vent for at least a day or until she fully wakes up. then they will extubate and she will stay in the CICU until she is eating without any respiratory or cardiovascular issues. then be on the floor for another few days. so we should hopefully be home around 4-7 days from today.
keep us in your prayers. and know like we do that God is with us. and his name is being glorified through our situation.

thank yall and bless yall for all your prayers. I will write another note after the surgery is over and we see chloe

How Big is our God?

First of all I would like to say "How big is our God?" well I know he is bigger than one new little family because people are praying in the states of alabama, arkanasas, mississippi, texas, virginia, west virginia, oklahoma, florida, arizona, washington st., tennessee, south carolina, and the countries of Canada, England, Guatemala(Huehuetenango and Guat. City), Portugal, and Hungary. All for one little girl. and the families that we have come into contact with while we have been here. How awesome is that?

Next I wanted to give an update on Chloe. She is still doing well. but the doctors have decided that waiting to do any kind of intevention has no benefit for her. and the risks are too great to wait. so tomorrow, Friday, January 29, at 0830 Chloe will have surgery to fix her aorta and to put a band on her pulmonary artery. she will likely have to have surgery later on on the hole in her heart to fix it. but there is no definite timeline on when that will be. most likely before she turns 1 year old though.

I will write a little more later. it is feeding time for chloe.

Keep her and us in your prayers tonight and esp. tomorrow at 0830-1200ish.

Thanks again and we love yall

I need my Prayer Warriors to get on their knees

The cardiologist just came and talked with us about an hour or so ago. He told us that after looking at her echo this morning, that the pulses in her legs and blood pressures in her legs were getting worse. He is going to have a confrence with all the cardiologists and cardiac surgeons in his group on friday morning. We will probably be having surgery to fix her aorta on Friday if possible and if not then monday. This pretty much just went ahead and ripped the hearts out of our chests. They will also most likely have to have surgery to fix her VSD (hole in her heart).
One of the cool things was that that hole in her heart was probably what was keeping her from not getting so sick so fast. cause the pressure was just pushing the blood back into the pulmonary circulation. Within the next week or 2 she would probably start going in to pulmonary edema from the extra circualtion. so they are going to put in a band in her pulmonary artery to decrease flow to the lungs.
then after a while(im not sure how much time) they will have to fix the VSD if it hasnt resolved itself or at least gotten better.
So continue to pray for Chloe. FOr God to heal her. Pray that he will give her peace and hold her tight in his arms. Pray for Jami and I so that GOd would give us strength, courage, peace, and the will to keep going. Pray for us to also have joy. Knowing that God is here with us, that he never will leave or forsake us, and that he won't give us more than we can handle.

Also, please keep baby emma in your prayers and also pry for the family of James Sellers, a coworker of mine who died this week. He was a great friend, and a true leader. He will be greatly missed and I pray that he is with God right now rejoicing in the presence of the Lord.

We love yall very very much, And thank yall so much for your prayers.
Christopher and Jami

Doing Better

Ok so we have some good news and some not bad but not great news. Had another echo today and the pediatric cardiologists are saying that as of right now Chloe will not need to have surgery for the narrowing of her aorta. So thank God for working that out. They are also saying that the narrowed part is not as bad as they had originally thought. again thank God :). However, they are saying that something is not adding up. Because her oxygen saturation in her lower body is good. and the blood pressures on her legs are good and all of her labs are good. But her pulses in her lower body are not good (but apparently they are not terribly bad becuase her blood pressure and sats are good enough down there so very wierd). So...they were gonna let her leave tuesday afternoon/night but have now decided to keep her till at least thursday and possibly later into the weekend. They are going to do another echo i think wed/thurs. cant remember right now. and they are going to have another cardiologist look at it. so this will be the 3rd cardiologist to have a look at her scans lol. (you can really tell that chloe is my daughter cause when we decide we are gonna have something wrong with us we do it 110% lol). Please continue to pray for her because as you can see, God is working bigtime and is holding her in his arms at all times.
but anyways Jami and I are doing ok. This has been a huge rollercoaster. I still cant believe I am a daddy now(I think most people are sayign that haha). and Jami is still being an amazing mother and an amazing wife. She is a natrual :).
So now for another amazing part of the family of God... so far I know of 7 states praying for chloe(alabama, arkanasas, mississippi, texas, virginia, oklahoma, and florida, and 2 other countries, Canada and England). I am sure there are more cause I have not read all of the messages I have gotten.
For those of yall that have responded on my wall, facebooked me, called me, texted me, or did somethign else that i cant think of a name for lol, and for everyone that is praying for us, Jami and I deeply and gratefully thank yall with all of our hearts. And Chloe thanks yall too.
I will be sharing updates as soon as I get a chance. We just now figured out how to get on the internet at the hotel we are staying at lol.
Also I would like to take a quick second and ask yall to pray for another little girl Emma and her family. She is the baby next to Chloe. I have talked to their family several times and she has the exact opposite problem as Chloe. where her Aorta is too large which is just as bad and they are most likely going to have to have surgery on her in the next few days. This might be one of the reasons God has led us into this situation because I have already had a chance to get to know them just a little bit and was able to pray with them the first time I spoke with them. So pray that God will use us to a shining light and be able to share God's love with them. (dont know if saved or not but will hopefully to share with them anyways).

Updates on Chloe

Ok. I know all of yall are praying and wandering whats going on so i'll try to explain it short and sweet. Chloe has a medium size hole in her heart or a VSD(ventricular septal defect) which is ok not causing any issues right now. However, she also has a coarctation of her transverse and descending aorta. which means that there is a narrowing in the main blood vessel that leaves the heart to take blood to the whole body. there is a possibility of surgery. but she is doing ok. they are just monitoring her right now. We know that God is here with us and Chloe and that He is in control. It was a miracle that our pediatrician heard a murmur and decided on some more tests that caught this otherwise there possibly could have been a devestating effect on Chloe. So we are in good hands. Just please keep Chloe in your prayers that she stays ok. That God will heal her through his hands or by using the hands of the physicians. That Chloe will not have pain and will be comfortable and peaceful. Please also pray for Jami and I. That God will give us peace and know that He is in control and with us. That he will never leave us or forsake us. and also pray for Jami's parents Her mom is here with us and it has been very hard on her. Jami's Dad is unable to be here cause of his Job and it has been very hard on him as well. Pray for my parents cause i know they are hurting with us as well. thank you all for your prayers and we will try to keep yall updated on here. If anyone wants more information, please call my family instead of Jami and I as we dont get phone service here in the hospital. you can also e-mail me on here with quetions. and i will try to answer with a group e-mail or on this status page. I am going to try and find a blog type thing so it is easier for us so I will keep yall updated. "In this world you will have trouble but take heart for I have overcome the world" John 16:33............The Anchor Holds...........We love yall.