Surgery...& some other info

First of all...i am overwhelmed and soooo blessed to know EVERY single one of you! i have such AMAZING people in my life, and God has TRULY blessed us with people who love Him, and are so committed to praying for His people...like sweet Asher.

It has been a VERY emotionally draining day for me and Donny...so i cant imagine how it has been for Asher. Thank you thank you thank you for all your prayers! They were felt, despite how imperfect we were by worrying about our baby, KNOWING full well that our God has him in His hands.

Asher's surgery went well, no complications, which is a big praise.

checking his groin area where the cath went in the femoral

this is him in recovery, just after surgery. He was wide awake, and under anesthesia. 

The bad news is his VSD (hole in his heart) is quite large for his size (4.5mm), and although they will keep monitoring it, and hope the hole will begin closing on its own, they still think he might need open heart surgery in the near future...we will know pretty quickly how long he can tolerate the hole without assistance. 

The other part is that the pulmonary valve could begin narrowing again, and IF that happens, he would either need to have this same surgery performed again, OR have his valve replaced...which unfortunately means he would have to continue having surgery until he stopped growing to make sue the valve that was replaced is the right size, since it wont grow with him. 

Please continue to pray for him...pray for his VSD to heal on its own, and for his pulmonary valve to stay open, and not stenos again.

We cant thank you all enough...we feel so incredibly loved, and cared for. We had SOOO many people interceding for him today in prayer....amazing...we are beyond blessed. 

My tears are now tears of joy...but this is not over, please continue praying when you think of it! 

Thank you!

still out of it after surgery

 resting after a long, rough day...
 sweet boy...so tired.

its been awhile...update on Asher

its been awhile....
so we HAVE tried posting on this thing in the last year and a half, promise...but we couldn't login...which i have now figured out! :)

A few of you have asked me to update the blog...mostly due to our sweet 2 week old, Asher who needs surgery this coming wednesday on his little heart.

To update, he has a VSD (ventricular septal defect) which is a hole in heart between the right and left ventricle, and a pulmonary stenosis (which is a narrowing of his pulmonary valve), and each time he goes to the pediatric cardiologist, it has gotten more and more narrow, which is a bad thing.

This coming wednesday, we will be heading to Denver, CO about 2 hours away, to the Children's hospital for a surgery to correct the stenosis. The doctors believe the VSD will close on its own eventually, which of course we hope for!

Please be praying for our family...we have been fortunate enough not to have huge health issues with our kids (besides the febrile seizures), up to this point, and a 2 week old having surgery is heart-wrenching for  me as his mommy. I will try to keep this updated once we know more! :)

Our first Blog: Crazy Day @ the Invesco Field

So, because of the events that took place today, it inspired me to start a blog...mostly to keep an online "diary", and also to keep family and friends (not on FB) updated with our insane lives....so...let me tell you all about today...

We started by waking up very early to go to the early service at church...we went straight to the broncos game in denver from there. We noticed Harly wasn't feeling too well, and she seemed feverish, and stopped at a king soopers nearly in denver to pick up some meds for her. We were hoping to relieve her temp, since we have a history of febrile seizures on the Chastain side. We usually monitor them very closely when they have even the slightest temp...soaking them in a lukewarm bath, motrin and tylenol every two hours etc...however, we weren't able to do the usual things bc of where we were.
She seemed to be much better after we gave her the meds.

We finally made it to the game, and  Harly was not her usual self from the get-go. I was holding her and she was very still...(so not normal for a 14 month old!)...she fell asleep on me for awhile, and kept waking up crying...we thought she might be cold, so Donny bought a $50 Broncos blanket, hoping to help keep her warm. Within 2 minutes of having the blanket, she threw up all over herself, and mostly me. After using a ton of baby wipes to clean up the mess, she started looking better. We figured her stomach was upset, and after she threw up...she felt better...

Well...no more than 5 minutes later, she started shaking, her lips turned blue, her eyes rolled back into her head, and she became suddenly limp. Donny rushed down the stairs holding her little, seemingly lifeless body...lips completely blue. I ran after him shortly after and followed the medic with Harly in arms to the first aid station. Donny went back to our seats to grab Jaxon, and our stuff...leaving behind plenty of newly bought waters and sodas. (i hope someone grabbed those and drank them....) It took what seems like a lifetime to get to the first aid station...there was no fast way there...it was basically a wild goose chase...turning wrong corners, taking wrong elevators, etc.

We finally arrived at the first aid station, and they gave her some oxygen...she was completely lethargic, and out of it...they didnt bat an eye before deciding she needed to go to the hospital and get checked out. I rode in the ambulance with her, while donny and jax took the van to meet us there...(an hour later)...

She had a temperature of 104 when we arrived, and a very high heart rate. I laid in the hospital bed holding her for 2 hours straight (i couldn't feel my rear after awhile....) and eventually she came out of her "funk" from the seizure. She seemed pretty close to her normal self, and became super hungry! she ate an entire container of cherry puffs, and moved on to Jaxon's Schlotsky's sandwich. The nurse soon brought her her own mac and cheese, which she ate in its entirety (aside from the occasional bite from Donny...lol)

We were finally released after 2 hours in the ER, and made our way back to the Invesco Field Stadium. After finally getting back in...(which took forever and we had to illegally park closer to the stadium), we realized we had missed the entire game. We still needed to retrieve Harly's stroller...so we made our way.
We arrived to pick up the stroller, and asked about reimbursement for the tickets...or even tickets to a game next season...or even a picture with Tim Tebow (hehe)...and after waiting for another 45 minutes to find out our ticket fate....we were sent home with nothing...except for a number to call...will update tomorrow, if anything comes of that phone call....

We left, empty handed...well excluding the new expensive blanket, and stroller, and headed to our illegally parked car...which we were nervous about it getting towed. A man in a golf cart-like vehicle offered to take us to our illegally parked car, which of course we hesitated since we could potentially get in trouble in case he noticed we didn't have a pass...but due to the long walk, accepted. We finally arrived, he didn't notice that we didn't have a pass, and we loaded up the swagger wagon.


On the way home, both kids passed out for our long trip home...it took 3 hours to get home (normally its about 45 minutes), but it was snowing, and we were going, on average, 10 mph. with traffic.

Trying to be positive about our day...and we are calling it, our great adventure instead!
I'm not great with words...but i will do my best to keep our blogs as interesting as possible...thanks for reading our first one! :)