Sierra, Sierra, Sierra!!

I apologize for the tardiness in updating. It has been too long and a little crazy. June 25th Sierra received a 0 on her biopsy. We were ecstatic. That was her first zero in a very long time. At least a year or more. A couple weeks later. She came down with a virus that had her vomiting and diarrhea. After about a week of the two she had an echo cardiogram done to make sure her heart looked alright. The doctors were worried that she wasn't absorbing her medication. Our cardiologist in Boise, ID and the transplant doctors here decided that she should be admitted for IV fluid. She was very dehydrated. She received 2L of fluid over 18 hours and was released from the hospital in Boise.

She bounced back really fast after her IV infusion and was acting better and better every day. On Wednesday, the 14th of July, I noticed that her ankles were HUGE. They were so big the skin was hanging over them and you couldn't see her ankle bones. Her face had been swollen, but the swelling in her face comes and goes. I called California and notified them of the swelling. They called back and told me to get and echo done immediately. Swelling like this is usually an indicator of rejection. After many phone calls the doctors decided to just life flight Sierra out of Baker straight to California. This life flight waiting time was a treat for Sierra, because she was able to have her cousin Ashley to wait with her. Thank you Ashley, you will never know how much that meant to Sierra. We only wish you could have come with us.

They did many tests on her, (i.e. chest x-ray, echo cardiogram, EKG, and labs) which they felt pretty confident in ruling out rejection. However, the doctors were noticing some "rigidity" on her echo. Our doctor in Boise had mentioned the same thing prior to her getting her IV fluids, thus why they ran the fluid in so slowly. What this means is that the pressures in her heart are high, which happens when the heart is not able to fill properly when it is relaxed, because it isn't relaxing all the way. They are throwing words around like Coronary Artery Disease (CAD).

For some reason, one of the complications of transplant is CAD. It is unusual in the adult diagnosis, in that the plaque isn't formed in the arteries from being overweight or a diet high in fat or sodium. The plaque will build in the smallest part of the coronary arteries where they can't do a lot. some times, they are able to put stents in and that helps.

Sierra was placed on a new medication combination last year when she was in rejection. They started seeing the signs of CAD then. The medication combination will do 1 of 3 things. It will either reverse CAD, keep it from worsening, or nothing and the disease will keep advancing. In the latter case, the treatment is to care for the congestive heart failure symptoms that will appear with time as the heart is cheated of its blood supply. All in all, eventually a new transplant will be the only option.

Sierra is receiving another catheterization on Friday to measure her pressures and look at the coronary arteries. As of December, the arteries were unchanged from last July. We are hoping that they have not worsened and she can keep plugging along. We will update as find out more and have an understanding ourselves. Sorry for the lengthy update. A lot has happened.

The 5th Annual Merrill Reunion

June 10th-13th was our annual Merrill reunion. This is my sibling family reunion. It started out relatively nice weather on Friday morning. Then about noon on Friday until Sunday morning, when we were leaving, it rained. I have never seen rain be so persistent in never stopping before. It was, however, a lot of fun to spend the time with family, very close to a fire or in campers.

On Saturday it did stop for a short while when we went to the Minatonka cave. It was really neat to see all the stalagmites and stalactites in the cave. Nature is so amazing at what it creates.
The sad part is that the cave stays at a constant 40 degrees year round, and it felt warmer in the cave than it had been outside. Then of course when we came out of the cave it started raining again.

The kids found a neat little "fort" in a small grove of trees, not far from camp, where there was some dry ground. They spent a lot of their time in the "fort" and had a great time. That is really what reunions are all about, creating memories. Thank you Kelly for all your efforts in planning it. We had a great time even though it wasn't ideal camping weather.

Just some random pictures of Gage in some fun sunglasses.

If Gage gets to do it then Hunter needs to also.

Everyone waiting to start the tour of the Minatonaka cave. Please get the fire going rangers!

Gage and Howdee trying to get a head start to the cave.

Brindee and cute Rileigh, Mom and Kelly waiting for our tour.

Best buds Hunter and Mason.

EVERYONE at the mouth of the cave.

Inside the cave. Some of the formations.

These formations were known as the seven dwarfs. I could point them all out, but it is a little hard to do on a blog.

One of the bats that has residence in the cave.

Some stalactites.

Some bones of a porcupine that was found in the cave many years ago.

This was known as the "treasure room." There was water that was dripping down constantly on these rocks making it look like a bunch of gold pieces.

More formations.

All of us at the end of the cave. Yes, I had enough layers on.

Bradey, Lacey and Mason at the end of the cave.

A common picture of us at camp. Everyone huddled around the fire in the mud. You can't tell, but it is raining.

A picture of our heavily covered tent. Notice the nice mud bog right in front of our tent after the canopy. It was quite messy when we left camp.

Jason's Big 40!!!

Saturday the 29th was Jason's 40th birthday. We had a surprise party planned for him with his college buddies. It was a lot of fun, because he had no clue that they were coming. Thank you Breckenridges and Steph!! He may be 40, but he sure doesn't act like it. He is still wrestling with the kids, hunting ground squirrels, fit as a fiddle and looking forward to his new calling as Young Men's President. Happy Birthday dear, we sure love you!!

There are also just some random pictures of the kids I thought were cute so I added to this update. Blog you later!

Gage sporting the construction working gear.

It lasted about that long. He was done.

Sierra did Lindsey's hair for school. They were both pretty proud of it.

The girls had hat day at school. There is a teacher at school that is fighting cancer. She started chemo and will be losing her hair. They had hat day in honor of her. Jason thought they looked pretty cute in their hats and took a picture.

Jason's birthday breakfast.

Jason's casket cake. It was fun to make.

Blowing out the candles.

Steph Purcell, Jason and Jay Breckenridge.

Steph, me, Jason, Jay and Jenny.

The Bingham and Breckenridge clan

All the kids - thanks for coming guys I really appreciate it! It was a lot of fun.

Fun With Our Cousins

May 21st we had the opportunity to go to Sugar City, ID and see Jason's brother Josh be put in as the bishop. It was a fun and awesome weekend. Our kids love to go and visit their cousins. After being there for a short period, they were already playing dress up and jumping out of the window seal in the basement.

Our friends the Yeck's came with their family and we bar-b-qued and went swimming at Green Canyon. Our kids had a ball. So fun to see you Yeck's. Thank you for a wonderful weekend Josh and Tara. We sure enjoyed the visit. Thanks for feeding our troops. You are both amazing people!

The four Dorcas' Michone, Ashley, Sierra and Megan(aka - dork-us, dork-ful, dork-it, & dork-mund as is written on their foreheads). Michone's is written backwards because she was looking in the mirror when writing on her forehead. They were hiding from the little kids.

Grandma Baxter brought some paint and everyone was able to paint a rock.

Sierra concentrating very hard on her rock.

Hunter and Kalli working hard on their rocks. Kalli did a gorgeous horse. It was really amazing. I think she has a real talent with painting.

Grandma Baxter helping everyone with their paints.

Sierra's "Look-A-Like"

On May 13th, we took the "Achievement Day" girls to the Interpretive Center here in Baker. It was a lot of fun. I just thought I would put this picture in here, because one day it will be fun to look back at and see all the girls and what they looked like so young.

May 17th Sierra had a project at school called a "look-a-like." It is where you create a scene of any kind using only household items. It was fun to see the creativity of the students in her class as well as her. Jason and I had as much fun helping her with it. Though, I must say she did most of it herself and came up with the idea of what her scene was going to be. She did great and we are really proud of her. I put pictures of just some of the projects. There were 22 kids in Sierra's class. A lot of projects and a lot of creativity!

The Achievement Day girls at the Interpretive Center.

This was a ice house (aka. igloo), made out of sugar cubes.

Sierra's "ocean" scene. Notice the whales, seahorses, and jelly fish hanging down. Also "jaws" there in the back right of the box. She also had starfish going up the side of the box.

A zoo made with saltine crackers and other food.

This was quite the awesome fort. There were 200 and something pencils that she sharpened. Very creative!!

I thought this was cute. It is a clothing store.

An ocean scene and a little cottage made of pretzel sticks.

An ideal castle made with boxes and cans covered in life cereal with marshmallow on top. A princesses dream.

Playing Catch Up!!

Sorry for the lack of blogging. It has been really crazy busy. May 13th was the North Powder school Cove play day. It is where all the schools in the district go to Cove and have a track meet. Each child chooses a couple of events to participate in and practice during PE at school.

It is for grades 3-5. Sierra participated in the softball toss, 50m dash, and long jump. Megan participated in the 50m dash, 50m hurtles, 4 x 50m relay, and the long jump. It was a very fun and exciting day and yet a heart wrenching day.

Megan took first in the relay, 2nd on the 50m hurtles and 3rd on the long jump. The time was never taken on her 50m dash unfortunately, but she did very well. Sierra did not place but I was very proud of her and her effort in trying so hard. They were both fun to watch.

Sierra doing the softball toss. It's all about the tongue in the right position.

And the release!

Megan in the 50m dash, in front by a long shot. Unfortunately no time recorded.

Finished first waiting to hear her time. Unfortunately we didn't find out that it wasn't recorded until the event had been over for awhile.

Sierra trying her best at the 50m dash.

Hanging out on the lawn, in between events.

Megan hanging out with her friends, not her mother.

Megan jumping the 50m hurtles. Great form!

Finished first in her heat! This time they recorded the time.

Megan doing the long jump.

Megan and her friends that took first in the 4x50m relay.

Sierra landing the long jump. Way to go!