Monday in Ann Arbor

We made it to Ann Arbor on Sunday thanks to a precious program called Angel Flights. It is a program that consists of pilots with private jets that donate their talents and resources to fly children to their treatment across the nation. On Sunday at 9, Kirk, a pilot from Wisconsin, flew in to Sioux Falls to pick us up and flew us to Ann Arbor. The flight took just under 3 hours. When he dropped us off he told us him and his wife Becky would pray us through this. It was SUCH a huge blessing to us and Cale loved the flight!
Today (Monday) was full of pre operation appointments. We started the day with a chest X-ray, she then had a sedated echocardiogram (it was an oral sedation, much like a Benadryl to make her sleep so they could have precise pictures of her heart before surgery), an EKG, we met with the surgeon, were given a tour of the hospital, and ended with labs. We were at the hospital from 9am to 3pm. It was a long day. Labs were the hardest part. For some reason they have always had such a hard time finding Willow's little veins. It took them an hour (with her crying for 40 minutes of it). They poked each arm 3 times, each hand 3 times, and her heal once. So you could pray they find veins better the rest of the time we are here.

After talking with the Surgeon today the following are our specific additional prayer requests for her surgery tomorrow:
1. Surgery will be at 7:30am. We have to be at the hospital by 6:15. The surgery will take 4 hours but we probably won't be able to see her until 12:30. The surgeon's name is Dr. Romano. She is the best at what she does and we are so thankful she is our surgeon. Pray for the surgeon and the whole team. We want them on their A game!

2. One of the main reasons this surgery has to be repeated down the road is because of valves leaking. Pray that Willow's valves will never leak and that we won't have to ever have heart surgery again.

3. There is a 10-15% chance that the electrical current in her heart could be cut, causing a condition called heart block which would result in her having to have a pace maker permanently put in. Please pray against this risk.

4. It is a big deal for her to get off the vent the first day. That is the goal. Please pray that her pressures go down so she can get off the vent.

5. Lastly, please pray for our family. It's just so heartbreaking to see your child hurting in any way. I am a nervous wreck.

Thank you so much for all the support and encouragement over the last few days! We really have the best support system!