Meet Me In St. Louis, Louis; Meet Me at the Fair...

We find ourselves singing the above words quite a bit, since we've been traveling there a lot. Tonight we're packing for our third trip to the St. Louis Children's Hospital in less than a month. I'd probably complain about the distance and frequency, except for the fact that we are so thankful that we were led to this hospital. 

We were especially thankful to be at a top-notch hospital the last time we were there for Isabelle's catheterization. It was only supposed to be a diagnostic one–taking measurements to assess whether she's a candidate for heart surgery. Yet, a few hours in, the surgeon came out to let us know that they had found something unexpected. He'd found what's called Pulmonary Vein Stenosis, a narrowing of one of the veins that brings blood from the lungs to the heart. It was narrowed to 2mm and needed to be opened up before any future heart surgery. Thankfully, they were able to open it up successfully. Afterwards, the cath surgeon remarked that their hospital takes the time to do diagnostic procedures like catheterizations before going in for surgery. And in cases like hers, it turned out to be worth it. And he delivered further good news that Isabelle is a candidate for heart surgery!

So, now I've pretty much caught you up on the medical side of things. After we arrive in St. Louis tomorrow, she'll have pre-surgery test on Wednesday. Thursday is the big day, when she will get open heart surgery to fix the holes in her heart. Even though the holes are substantial, we've been told that, as far as open heart surgeries go, fixing her types of issues are fairly straight forward. 

By no means, though, are your prayers not needed! So keep it up! I'll try to post with more frequent updates this time around.