Hello and good evening,

Just a quick update to let everyone know of a development from this afternoon. As you may have read, we have had Kelsey on an athletic type heart monitor for the past few days. It is the type worn by athletes for cross training or long distance training, to monitor their change in heart rate as they condition themselves. What it does NOT do is give an EKG read out, and therefore the “pauses” or flat lines do not appear as vividly as we would like. We, Nicole more than anyone, has been studying the data in the reports from the monitor trying to find a pattern or something that we can definitively say is her heart pausing. So far, she has had very little luck.

While all this has been going on, our cardiologist here has been doing his own research, as well as consulting with other cardiologists, literally around the country, trying to determine what the best monitor would be. He, along with the other specialist he has spoken with, has determined that an implanted loop recorded (ILR) be “installed”. This is a small device that will have to be surgically implanted into Kelsey’s chest and will record the information needed to insure we are treating her properly.

We meet with the Dr. in the morning at 9:00 to discuss the procedure and the best time to do it. It will most likely happen quickly, since he feels she is too vulnerable without a 24 monitor of some type. Do you know just how badly we do not want to put her through another surgery? Granted, this one will be very minor compared to the decompression last month, and it is a lot better than the alternative, but we were just starting to get her calmed back down.

I have been trying for the past 4-5 minutes to put down on e-paper what I am feeling and I seem to be having a hard time verbalizing it. God’s time is, well it is just plain weird sometimes. I don’t mean that in a questioning manner, but I can’t help but wonder, “Why now?” Why another surgery, regardless of the magnitude, why does she need to go through the trauma of hospitals and needles and all that goes along with it? As I am typing this, I am thinking of my neighbor who is recovering from Leukemia. He had one of his hips replaced today and I bet he didn’t ask, “Why now?” , he just did it because he knew he had to.

I’m frustrated, the more I think about Kelsey in a hospital the more irritated I get and the more I seem to be rambling on. I will update tomorrow after we know more.

Good night and, please, all say a prayer for John Micheal that he is up and walking on his new hip very soon.

In Christ,
A.