Makenzie at 7

Another year has gone by and my baby girl survived the "end of the world". 6 years old was such a fun year she has grown so much in the last year. She is an amazing young girl who is such a great Minnie mom. I don't know what I would do with out her. I am so thankful for the love and strength she gives me when times get tough. Makenzie has endured through so much for her little life, so far but yet she always smiles and is a happy child. She loves life and her family she loves playing with her brothers and sisters. She is the most compassionate girl I no she is such an amazing daughter and I am lucky enough to call her mine for all time and eternity. Here is to many more birthday's Makenzie. Happy birthday my sweet girl we love you.      

Makenzie at 7

What is your favorite food? Shepard's Pie

What is your favorite color? Pink

What do you want to be when you grow up? Cardiologist

What is your favorite song? All of Hannah Montana's songs

Where would you like to go on vacation? California. Why? Because we had so much fun at Sea World when I got to meet Hannah Montana through the Make a Wish.

What is your favorite subject in school? Language Arts

What is your favorite primary song? Heavenly Father loves me

Who is your best friend? Hannah and Emma Terry

What is your favorite animal? Giraffe

What is your favorite T.V show? Jessie

What is your favorite Season? Summer. Why? because daddy grills yummy food for us like steak

What is your favorite place to go for dinner? Sizzler 


Every night Makenzie has a routine she has to go through before she falls asleep I think it is so sweet and now I am at the point where if she doesn't say it I cant go to sleep either. Here it goes,
Kenzie "will you do everything",
Mom "Yes",
Kenzie "will you put my blankets on"
Mom "Yes"
Kenzie " will you put my pillow on the side where it always is"
Mom "Yes"
Kenzie "make sure my blankets aren't on my pillow"
Mom "Yes"
Kenzie " good night I love you have sweet dreams"
Mom " good night I love you too, have sweet dreams"
Kenzie " If I'm not a sleep in 20 minute can I sleep with you"
Mom "Yes"
Kenzie "good night I love you have sweet dreams
Mom "good night I love you too, have sweet dreams
Kenzie " if my head isn't on my pillow will you put it on"
Mom "Yes"
Kenzie "good night I love you have sweet dreams"
Mom " good night I love you too, have sweet dreams.

Happy Birthday my Beautiful princess!!!
 

Tangled Party

Kenzie loves her birthday just like most kids do, but she especially was excited for this one just because this year mom was brave enough to let her invite some friends over and in 3 bedroom apt it gets pretty cramped pretty fast with family and friends.

Since her birthday is December 22 we try and do her birthday parties a  few weeks before just because it is so close to Christmas, and I like to keep them separate from each other so she can enjoy her special day that is all about her. Of course we still give her a little present on her birthday also just so she is recognized on her special day. 

 This year she wanted a Tangled party. So I made her a Tangled tower cake and searched the web for some fun game ideas for the kids to play. When the kids arrived I attempted to get them to do a pascal craft but they seemed to be more interested in playing in the play room so we moved on to the bean bag toss. Which was a little more entertaining for most of the kids there where still some kids that were more interested in playing with toys. But the ones who played it had fun.

Makenzie throwing the bean bag in Rapunzel's tower

Braxton's turn

 

Then we moved on to our last game hit Flynn Rider in the Nose with a frying pan just like when Rapunzel hits Flynn rider in the face with a frying pan on the movie haha.  The kids seemed to enjoy that one even the adults got in on the action. Everyone got prizes just for playing.

Hitting Flynn Rider with a frying pan

Mary's turn

So close Karson

Daniel almost got it

Right on the nose Braxton

Trying to find the perfect spot

Conner almost got him on the nose

Finally it was time for presents  and cake. Kenzie got a lot of fun stuff from everyone. She defiantly scored this birthday and loved that she had most of her friends here to celebrate. She was pretty bummed out that her best friend Hannah and her sister Emma got sick and couldn't make it. Hopefully next year :).

A tangled doll from her friend Divana

Getting a present from Mary and Daniel

Got a guitar from Mom and Dad

The cake turned out awesome if I don't say so myself and Kenzie loved it, she also loved helping me make the Tower. She says when she grows up she wants to make cakes like mommy. I hope she is 10 times better at it than I am.

She loved her cake

 So I am happy to say her birthday party was a success a little crazy in a small apt but Kenzie loved it and I hoped all her guests did too..Thank you everyone that showed and made her birthday party a success and a good memory I hope she wont ever forget.

Kindergarten

We made it through home school Kindergarten, it started out pretty easy for her, it was more of a refresher.  By the time the middle of the school year came around it was more of a challenge for her which made it more of a challenge for me because she had to sit longer to get through school. By the end of the school year I was just as excited for summer as she was.
I am so proud of all the things she has accomplish through out the year, I am hoping 1st grade will be just as fun as kindergarten was for her and I am excited to continue to teach her and watch her learn and grow.
Congratulations Makenzie on graduating Kindergarten, "Here is to 1st grade."

Makenzie's Day

 

5 years ago today Kenzie received a new heart, it's been a roller coaster for sure with multiple rejections, a pacemaker, a couple of cardiac arrests and countless Dr. visits. But my heart is so full of gratitude and thanks to our Heavenly Father for allowing her to still be with us, he could have taken her back a few times but she is still here and I can't ask for anything else. She is such a trooper and one of the strongest little girls I know.

I am also so thankful for her donor and the family that allowed there child to donate his/her heart to my little munchkin and gave her a second chance at life. What a difficult decision to have to make when you've just lost a child. My heart goes out to them and I think about them often even though I don't know them, they are apart of us and always will be.

I am so thankful that I have been able to watch her grow into the young little lady she is, and with out that new heart I wouldn't have been able to watch her walk, potty train her, watch her ride a 2 wheeler for the first time, teach her to tie her shoes, listen to her little voice everyday, tuck her in at night and now home school her.

Yes it scares me when she has rejection or ends up in the hospital, we have lost some very good friends the past 5 years that have passed away due to rejection and there heart just couldn't take it anymore. So I am very blessed that Kenzie is doing good and is still with us. I just have to continue to do what I am doing and give her hugs and kisses everyday, tell her I love her and let her know how proud I am of her.

I am looking forward to many, many, many more years watching her grow and succeed in life and become the best she can be. I am so proud of her and all that she does for me and everyone around her, she has the most precious spirit about her and when you are around her you can feel the love that she has for everyone.

I love you Makenzie and I am so proud of you and the strength you have and for making me a better person. you defiantly have a special spirit and I am so proud to call you my daughter.

A special friend stopped by for Kenzie's day (her make a wish Volunteer) and gave her a flower along with a pack of donuts. We love you Roberta thanks for all you have done for Kenzie, she just adores you and loves you!!!

I also got some good news yesterday from her Dr. on her last cath they had a question about her Coronary arteries and if they were thinning or not and they got the past cath results from Denver to compare from a few weeks ago and there were no signs of thinning or Coronary Artery Disease. Yeah for good news, way to go Kenzie!!!
And as always, Be A Hero Be A Donor!!

Yearly Cath

Kenzie had her yearly cath which they go through her groin area instead of her neck and this is the first time that PCMC has done her yearly cath, so it was new to us and the Dr. It is always nerve raking when that time comes around even though she looks healthy on the outside there is always that chance that her heart my not be healthy. There is always that chance of coronary artery disease or rejection. During the whole time Kenzie is in the Cath lab a million things go through my mind, it is always hard to let Kenzie go into a procedure and entrust the doctors to take good care of her.
2 hours later and she is done, Dr Day came and talked to me about the results he was happy about her pressures and her function he had questions about her coronaries because there was a slight thinning on both the left and right one but he didn't seem too concerned but he is going to have Denver send Kenzie's past cath results to see whether it is just her normal coronaries or if they are really thinning. You never want to hear any news that isn't reassuring or good but we are praying that her coronary artery's are still healthy and that is just the way her coronaries have always been. Because if transplant kids end up with coronary artery disease they end up needed a new heart transplant.
She also had clinic after her cath her echo looked good but Dr. Everett noticed that there was a valve leaking a little more than it was on her last echo but she said it could be because of the cath and they will check it next visit, but she didn't seem to concerned. She was also pleased with her Cath results and her Biopsy results they came back and on the international scale which what Denver uses was a 0 so that is perfect. Her other scores came back C1V2, ISHLT0, pAMR1, which I'm not exactly sure what they all mean she explained them to me but I can't recall it, but she liked the numbers.
So we are just waiting for Denver to send them the last cath results and then we will go from there. But they didn't seem to concerned at this point.

Spot light

This week's spotlight:

Makenzie M.

Kindergarten

Favorite Food: stroganoff

Favorite school subject: phonics

Favorite hobby: playing the Wii

Favorite color: pink

Surgery

We went to the Dr's to get her chest checked out and they found that she has a umbilical hernia which means that she would need surgery to fix it. That is not what we were expecting. She ended up having her surgery march 14th. Her dad was able to give her a blessing the night before just because we had to be at the hospital at 7 a.m. I am so thankful for having such a righteous man to hold the priesthood. You would think that what she has gone through this should be nothing, but there is always risks with surgery and having a child with heart problems makes it even more nerve racking. They gave her some versed which make her relaxed it definitely works, but when they came to take her back she just started crying, it just broke my heart to have to let her cry while they took her back. I told myself that I had to be strong before they took her but it didn't happen I started tearing up, which probably doesn't help her but it broke my heart. I hate leaving my kids especially when you have to put trust in someone else.

Letting her smell the root beer anesthetic before taking her back

It was an hour long surgery which feels like forever. Her Dr. came to talk to me and said the hole was a size of a quarter, but the surgery went well. I was able to go back and see her and she was so sleepy and sad I just wanted to hold her but I couldn't. They where thinking about keeping her over night just to monitor her. But decided if she did good and her heart function stayed normal that they would watch her for 5 hours and see how that goes. She did wonderful, So we were able to go home around 4 that after noon.

For about 4 days we slept on the couch cause it was hard for Makenzie to get up and walk to the bathroom, the first 2 nights we got no sleep I had to keep getting up to get her either an ice pack or help her to the bathroom or she just couldn't sleep so we would watch t.v until she fell back asleep. Thankfully the other 2 nights were not as bad, and now she is back in her own bed and has slept through the nights. She seems to be getting back to her normal activities, but the funny thing is that she still uses the surgery to have to clean the floor cause she can't bend over. But yet she can do everything else lol.

She has a follow up appointment on April 9 to see how it is healing.

Hospitalization

Kenzie got one of her IVIG treatments on Friday. That night she woke up in the middle of the night shaking with a fever, I didn't think anything of it because her last treatment she did the same thing so I just thought it was a side affect because she got over it the last time.

We ended up with no sleep because Kenzie kept waking up cause her legs were hurting and her fever got up to 102.1. It was a long night.

In the morning she still had a fever so I checked her heart it was beating at 131 bpm which is high for her. I thought it had to do with her fever. She finally took a nap. So I checked her heart again and it was still the same. So I called her coordinator and she told me to give her Tylenol and Benadryl to see if that helps and to call her back in 4 hrs.

Well 4 hrs went by and her heart was still fast. So I called her back and she told me to take her to the ER just to make sure especially due to her history. We got there and they hooked her up to the heart Monitor and her heart rate was at 150. Her pacer was firing with her own heart beat causing it to beat so high which they called it a flutter. They had to manipulate the pacer to bring her heart rate back down.

She then got admitted cause her heart function was down, so they thought she was back in rejection.

She had a cath the next morning to see how her pressures were and to get a biopsy. They also put a cath in her neck just in case she needed the plasma foresees they didn't want to have to put her under again if she needed treatment.

We finally got the results back around 5 and it came back negative. That means no rejection even her rejection from last October is gone but they are still going to keep treating the old one until she is finished with all her treatments.

They said it was probably her treatment and to much fluid in her and her heart wasn't pumping fast enough for the fluid so her heart was working harder to push the fluids through.
So for the last 2 treatments they are doing them inpatient so they can keep a closer watch on her.

That was the best news ever. We didn't want her to have to go through that again. So we got released that night. And got the best sleep ever after 2 nights of no sleep at all.

Thank you all for you continued prayers for our sweet Makenzie.