Uncle Bud

Happy June, welcome summer!

I just wanted to clarify a little bit about Avery. (If you can't take another word, scroll down.) It's not really about her, because what she is, is a cute little girl who gets tickled pink when you say her name and talk pretty to her. A little bit about what is going on with her right now. Avery was diagnosed before she was born, with a heart defect double inlet left ventricle. That means in her heart, one of the lower chambers of her heart is very small (useless really) and mainly one large ventricle. The valves that normally would open from the upper two chambers into the lower two chambers, in her, empty both into the one ventricle, hence the double inlet (two valves) emptying into the left ventricle.

blah, blah, blah. Pretty much, overall the blood in her body isn't as oxygenated as it should be causing her to have less energy. Eating is a chore for her, that and crying wear her out (she's getting stronger so not as tired out after these things). She has a feeding tube inserted down her nose to her stomach. It is taped to her cheek to keep it in place. Avery is taking most of her bottles by mouth now, which is great. Although, when she's tired and doesn't finish, we are to put the rest of the milk down her tube. The tube is also great for her medications, which she still will gag on and they'll get tossed up. Yay for the tube for this reason. She is gaggy and often spits up her food and the tube come out with the rest of it. Then we get to put it back in ourselves, down the other nostril (to give her each half of her nose a break).

That's a lot of info. For those of you who have asked some questions. If you weren't wondering about any of it, too bad, you just read it.

Avery will have 2 more surgeries to re-route the flow of blood in her heart. She is doing okay right now, so that is WONDERFUL. Her next one will happen around 6 months of age, or when she is outgrowing the shunt in her heart. Basically when she shows signs of congestive heart failure (sounds worse than it is).

Any questions, please ask, I am happy to attempt to explain, but I hate to always talk about it. I know it gets old. :)

On a different note:
The weather is beautiful and we've been able to enjoy some of it this weekend. I love, love the warmer weather and envision the eternities is a balmy 75 degree temp all the time!

When I was young, one of my uncles, named Bud, was always full of jokes and funny things to say. I was riveted to his every word. Bud would tell these fantastic stories about when his eye popped out of it's socket and other amazing tales. After that, I wanted to also have a joke handy to share, too. It wasn't until college that I selected my handy joke. Here it is (brace yourselves): What do you get when you cross a dyslexic, an insomniac and an atheist? A person who stays awake at night, wondering if there's a dog. ;)