Shunt placement today

Please pray for Ryan's procedure today, she will be getting a shunt placed in her head. This is necessary to remove the excess fluid that is causing swelling to the ventricles in her brain. We are confident that Ryan will do well but we are asking you to please pray that her vitals remain stable for the entirety of the procedure. Thanks again for all the support. Jared

Great News!

Things are going really well here at St Joes! We just got some really good news. In fact it's an answered prayer. The CT scan revealed that Ryan's pulmonary artery is doing work! The nurses have taken her off of the prostaglandin which will allow her PDA to close. This is great news because we can now wait for up to 3 months to have her heart surgery. This means that we can take her home in as early as 2-3 weeks! This will allow her to grow and thrive at home with us instead of in the hospital. Thanks so much to all of you who are praying! Ryan is a testimony of your faith in our Lord. To the one and only God be the glory. Jared

CT Scan follow up

Ryan has returned from her CT scan and is doing well. We are now just awaiting the results. I will keep you all posted. Jared

CT scan

Ryan is doing good today. Her vitals are stable and she is getting some much needed rest. She has a CT scan scheduled for tomorrow at 8:00am to take a closer look at her heart. When speaking with the cardiologist today, he told me that he has a gut feeling that Ryan's pulmonary artery is capable of sustaining her. This would be an answered prayer. We could then take her off of the prostaglandin, which would allow her PDA to close and give us a real chance to take her home in a few weeks. She would still need surgery to fix her heart but it could then be delayed for up to 3 months. Please pray that the Doctor is right. We want nothing more than to bring her home. Thanks so much for all of the prayers and support. May God bless you all, Jared

Prayer request

As you all know Ryan's surgery to close her spine was a success. Our next concern is the cerebral spinal fluid that has built up in her brain. If her body is unable to somehow absorb the extra fluid she will have a shunt placed in her head to drain it. This is yet another invasive surgery for a little girl who just arrived into this world 2 days ago. Please pray that the fluid in her brain will subside. We are taking this one step at a time and right now the excess fluid is our focus. Thanks again to you all. Jared

Count it all joy

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4 ESV)

New info

Well the good news is that Ryan made it through surgery and is doing well. What A relief it was to see her when she returned. I do however have some news that's difficult to hear. We found out earlier today that she is missing her corpus callosum in her brain. It separates the cerebrum into 2 hemispheres. They are unsure how this will affect Ryan. Apparently there are perfectly healthy people walking around without one but also people who are severly affected by it's absence. All we can ask for is continual prayer. We are trying to be strong but we are truly broken. Love to you all, Jared