She gained weight

Today went pretty well at clinic got blood drawn. Echo of course took for ever like it always does but her echo came back great. Dr Everitt did mention that she did use her pace maker while they were doing her echo so she defiantly needed one she said.

She got her weight checked and she gained 2 pounds in a month which is an all time record for Makenzie she is now back to her pre-surgery weight back in February which was 30 pounds. She got down to 26 pounds after her surgery for not eating for a week. We are so proud of her for gaining that much in a month. They have told us if she doesn't keep gaining on her own they will put her on medication to enhance her hunger for a few months or last result a feeding tube which we don't want either. We would rather have her gain on her own terms. but she needs to be at 35 pounds to be were she should be for her height, so we have a little ways to go unless she keeps it up like last month.

We just have to keep power packing. When we went to Denver for her surgery in February they gave us sample's (like 30 boxes) of Kids Boost Essential 1.5 which has 355 calories in an 8 oz box she hated it when we were there so I never thought of trying to give it to her when we got home but for some reason I gave it to her and on top of that I pour in some heavy whipping cream which adds another 50 calorie's for every 1 Tbl spoon. plus sometimes if it tastes funny to her she tells me to add more Instant Carnation to it, because that is what she thinks she is drinking because she hated the Kids Essential so I have to secretly mix it for her. So I give a lot of the credit to the high calorie drink.
The bad part about the Kids Boost Essential 1.5 is that it is so expensive and you can't buy it at local store's so if you purchase it on line it varies from $50-$60 for a 27 pack which Kenzie drinks about 1 to 1 1/2 cans a day so it will be really costly for us if we had to buy two 27 packs a month, and we are slowly running out and the Dietitian here was able to only give us 6 sample's so that will only last 3 days so we are hoping she will continue to gain weight when she runs out.
So hopefully next month we go for clinic she will gain again even if it isn't 2 pounds but gaining anything will be better than losing weight.

Be a Hero Be a Donor

Today it has been 4 years since Makenzie's Heart Transplant. I don't even know how to express how grateful I am to her Donor and the family that decided to be selfless and allowing there child to donate there organs to children who were hanging on waiting for a second chance in life. It makes my heart full to think that their are people still out there who will think of others in time of grief and sadness, especially when loosing a child. We have had a few times where we thought we were going to loose Makenzie and even now It still makes me cry just thinking about how many close calls we have had with loosing her.

I couldn't even fathom loosing a child and with Makenzie's donor families selfless act they gave her a second, you may say life. Even though it hasn't been easy after her transplant, she is still here learning, growing and loving life.

I truly wish I knew who they were so I could just give them a huge hug and thank them for what they have done for Makenzie, with out them who knows if she would even be here. I have written them but never heard back from them. I hope one day we will hear from them and maybe meet them so they can see what legacy there child has left behind.
Her donor is truly an Angel who has saved Makenzie's life, and I am forever grateful to her donor and the family whether we know who they are or not.

Each year we celebrate Makenzie's Donor with a cake it is our way of showing our appreciation and honoring her angel a day that we will always hold near and dear to our hearts 5/16/2007.

BE A HERO BE A DONOR

5/16/2007 - 5/16/2011

From then to now

Last day of our trip

I can finally finish up our trip it's just been busy around here. Thursday was our last day, they booked Tyler's flight at 11 so he could get home for his midterm test. So while he went home the kids and I were able to spend time at the beach we went back to the Santa Monica pier, just because I new kind of were it was at. Luckily for GPS on my phone I found it pretty easy. We got there around 11 and it was so fun we wished daddy was able to stay and play but he needed to take his test which we understood. We had a lunch picnic which ouch it is expensive to buy at the pier. We had pizza a hot dog and fries. We then chased the waves and got pretty wet, we also played in the sand for a little bit, looked for sea shells, it was so fun we love the beach the kids didn't want to leave, ok we all didn't want to come home. But unfortunately are flight was leaving at 4:00 p.m so we left at 1:00 p.m to find the LAX airport. That was an adventure in it's self. My Gps was not picking up the airport so ya I was a little nervous luckily we left a little earlier. So at least I had the address to the Avis rental car place because I punched that address in and it gave me the direction. I was a little skeptical because it didn't give me the freeway directions. Which was the way we got there. But we finally made and check in the car and went to the airport.








I wanted time to check in the airport for the fact that I had both kids and luggage and Kenzie getting threw security with her Pace Maker. But it went pretty smoothly we had to get a pat down again because Kenzie wouldn't go through the scanner but that was ok. We got threw security in about 10 minutes so ya we had a lot of down time at the airport. So we found ways to entertain our selves and here are the picture's to prove it.







We finally got on the plane and the kids did good during the flight. Kenzie had fun taking picture's of us up in the air. We finally landed at 7:20 P.M and man was it cold in Utah.







It was a super fun vacation and it is all thanks to the Make a Wish foundation. And Kenzie loved everything about it and was happy about the wish she made. If we can afford it next year we want to go back to California and spend a day at the beach. Yep it was that fun.