Piper Update #2

Piper is doing great! They are taking pictures of her heart now! Hopefully, that means we will be holding her soon!

Piper Update #1

The nurse just came out to say Piper is now asleep and they are putting in her line to do her catherization now. She was crying when they took her from us. The nurse said that was a good thing because when Piper was crying she was able to breathe in the gas and go right to sleep. They put in her IV and other line after she was asleep. She shouldn't feel anything. Let's hope she wakes up okay!

Piper's Catherization!

Today is Piper's catherization! We arrived at the hospital at 9:30 AM and she was taken back for her catherization around 11:00 AM. We were told she would be gone between two and three hours. Most of the time is actually getting her to sleep and waking her up. The procedure is not really that long. The catherization is a diagnostic test before her heart surgery. I will post updates when we receive any word on how she is doing!

Graham's CT Scan!

Today Graham and I headed to the hospital to have his CT scan and bloodwork drawn to check to see if his cancer has stayed away. G-man was such a trooper. I explained everything that was going to happen before we went to bed last night. He knew exactly what to expect and did a great job. He was so good that even all the nurses and doctor commented on what a great job he did today! Graham's AFP level was 2.6 today which is a great sign that the cancer is gone! YEAH! His level dropped again from his last blood test before we left for China!

P.S. I know I haven't been posting a lot lately, but we left our camera battery charger in China. I haven't been able to take lots of pictures of all the fun things we have been doing. I have to order another battery charger!

Cow Appreciation Day!

Tonight we went to Chick-fil-A for dinner. It was Cow Appreciation Day and if you dressed up like a cow you got a free entree! Since Chick-fil-A is one of our children's favorite places to eat, I couldn't resist dressing everyone up like a cow for dinner tonight! We had a great time!

One Month Ago!

One month ago on, June 7th, we met our precious Piper! She was so scared and we were so worried about her! We were immediately in love with our new daughter! We will never forget those sad eyes and all the tears Piper cried that day! Our hearts were broken as we watched her grieve the loss of the only person who took care of her! We love you Piper Olivia (or Pipes as Parker calls you)! We are so glad you are our daughter and little sister! You are such a special little girl and we can't imagine our family without you!

(Pictures taken by our travel mate and professional photographer Nicole Chyrst) Thanks so much for the beautiful pictures of Piper!

Piper's Upper GI Study!

Piper had her upper GI study done at the hospital. I was not able to be in the room with her while the test was being done because of the radiation from the x-ray. Erik had to do this one all alone! Piper was not a happy camper! Erik said he had to hold her down on her legs and the technician had to hold her head and inject barium into her mouth while she was laying flat on the table! Erik said he was very worried about Piper because she turned blue because she was crying so hard! I was sitting outside the room and down the hall a little bit and I could hear her crying. It was hard to not be there to comfort her!

We were fortunate to also have a speech and language pathologist observe the study. She was able to provide her insight into our concerns with Piper. The initial results of the upper GI study were that her anatomy is all working fine and there are no holes present. We were happy to hear that news. However, she does have some reflux. After speaking with the speech and langauge pathologist, she told us it is not uncommon for children with heart defects to have swallowing issues. She said there is not scientific data to correlate the two together, but it is a common occurance. We also found out that Piper has a large blood vessel in her heart that is pushing up against her esophagus. It is not constricting it, but is is pushing up against it. This may be causing the issues we see when Piper is eating or drinking. The speech and lanaguage pathologist suggested that we have a swallowing test done after Piper's heart is surgically corrected. She works with the inpatients and will happily do the test for Piper while she is recovering from her heart surgery. We are hoping that once Piper's heart is fixed that she will have better success with eating and drinking.

We also had to have Piper give blood for all the tests that our pediatrician ordered for children who are internationally adopted. This was another traumatic event for Piper. They couldn't get her blood drawn with the first stick. They had to try again and they were able to get some blood, but her blood was so slow moving we thought they would never be done collecting her blood. They had to stick her one last time to finsh getting all the blood they needed. It was so hard to watch her be so upset again!

We took Piper to lunch at Chick-fil-A after her upper GI study was over!