Our Fun Run and California

July 14th, we noticed some significant swelling in Sierra's feet. After calls to California and our pediatric cardiologist in Boise, they felt it best to life flight her to Cali right away. To make a very long story short, they did numerous test and a biopsy. The biopsy was 0 and all the tests came back looking great. The conclusion for this wonderful trip, she had a case of fluid overload from being sick the prior week and getting a whole bunch of IV fluids. Her heart couldn't handle all the fluid, even though she was very dehydrated. It pushed all the fluid into her tissues about 4 days later. Swelling always gets everyone excited.

However, this wonderful trip to California gave Sierra and I a week and a half to "hang out" and take in the sites. She was released from the hospital on Saturday and we were able to get into the Ronald Mcdonald House. We borrowed bikes and rode all over town, a different adventure everyday.

While we were in California there was a 10K race in Baker that I had been training for. I ran it around the Stanford hospital and Jason and Megan ran the 5K here in Baker for me.

Jason and Megan at the finish line. Megan's first race.

The whole gang present at the run, including the cheer leaders.

Justin and Emily at the finish line of the race. Way to go guys, you ROCKED!!

Me outside the hospital at my finish line.

With no vehicle and needing groceries, we had to get really creative how to bring groceries home on the bike.

We had to do a little shopping. Sierra was ecstatic and loving it.

One day we toured the Stanford campus. Sierra and I had a little wreck into each other the second day we had the bikes. She ended up spraining her wrist pretty good. Thank Heavens we didn't break it. We had to take this picture to show her brace to Daddy.

Looking down on the Stanford campus from the Hoover Tower.

Sierra at the top of the Hoover tower.

A catholic cathedral that was really pretty on campus.

Of course when you are life flighted you have no church clothes with you. Sierra got the better end of the deal on that one.

We had a fun ride on our bikes out to the duck ponds by the Palo Alto airport. We tried to make a not so fun situation as fun as possible. We did a lot of exploring on our bikes. It was fun.

Priceless Time with Cousins

July 11th was a very exciting time for our family. Jason's brother Justin and his wife Emily were returning to eastern Oregon from their 3 year adventure in Germany. We were all very ecstatic to see them. Our kids were especially excited to see their cousins, Keanna, Ayla, and Lindey. The other bonus we had on top of them coming home was Josh and Tara were here visiting. For the first time in a very long time, all the cousins were together.

We decided to go and spend a quick afternoon at Anthony Lakes. We hiked around the lake, and the kids had fun finding all kind of things like snow, a dead elk in the lake and fun rocks to climb on. It was fun to spend time with our cousins!

The whole clan. We had a similar picture taken 6 years ago. It consisted of 5 less kids, a few more babies, and red hot faces from hiking to Kraw fish Lake.

The kids loving the water going under the bridge. It was a pretty cool day for being July 13th.

A fun rock to climb on. Keanna, Lindsey, Ayla and Ryan making it look even funner.

A cute picture of Lindsey and Gage. Loving the pink hair.

Ashely and Sierra, the day before Sierra was life flighted to California.

Kalli and Megan

The last bridge before returning to our rigs.

This was just too cute of Lindey and Gage.

My fun boys!!

Me and the boys!

Emily and her girls.

3 amigos, Ayla, Lindsey and Keanna.

In the middle of July the girls were able to attend a dance class that was two days a week. The teacher taught all kinds of dancing, the rhamba, jazz, pop and many others. The girls loved it. Unfortunately, Sierra only attended the first week and then it was off to California for a week and a half. The couple of times she did go, she enjoyed it very much.

This class was also very fun, because the girls took it with their long gone cousin, Keanna. Keanna and her family had come back from Germany the week prior to the class starting. We were very excited that their family was moving back to eastern Oregon.

Keanna and Lindsey practicing their flutter. Lindsey balances much better when her tongue is sticking out.

Sierra and Megan waiting for the next move. Megan's spot was usually right next to the teacher.

So It Has Been Awhile!!!

I apologize, it has been way too long. I feel like I finally have a moment to breathe and thought I had better start getting our blog caught up. I will try and do a blog every one to two days until we are caught up. The first part of July was busy with working on the shop and swimming lessons. The kids always look forward to swimming lessons. Sierra threw a little kink into our July planned schedule, but all is well now. Thank you Bonnie for the reminder to get my blog updated. I will make it more of a priority!!

Hunter and Lindsey hanging out with us while working on the shop. Lindsey sporting her stylish tights.

Gage thinking his place to be is at the top of the ladder.

Jason was out changing pipe one morning and found a frog outside. He thought it would be great to show the boys. They were sound asleep and were awakened to this lovely creature .

Hunter trying to figure out if this is a dream or is there really a frog about ready to jump on him.

Gage is not so crazy about the frog as well.

Just don't let it touch me!!

Hunter was able to have swimming lessons with one of his favorite cousins Abigail. She is just too cute!

Hunter sporting his goggles.

Lindsey loving swimming lessons. She is so tiny that she can't touch the bottom of the pool and has to sit in a "crib." She is our little fish.

Megan loves swimming as well. She was in one of the higher levels where there are smaller classes. It made it a lot of fun for her.

Sierra attended the first week of swimming lessons and missed the 2nd because she got sick with a flu bug. Which started a whole cascade of fun that we will blog about later.

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.