Tatters is 6 months!

Hey Everyone~

I just wanted to send a picture update on our growing sweet girl. She thinks she is quite bigger then only 6 months and loves to go in her walker and explore where ever she can go. She has also enjoyed exploring new things to eat besides formula and boy does she love it, especially when Mimi gives her some of her pop cycle (as you can see in the picture). She is sweeter then sweet and glad we can at least share her through pictures to all of you since we are not able to see you all. We love you all and hope to hear from you soon!

Love~ Emily

The end of a long week.......

Hey Everyone~

Sorry I haven't sent an e-mail out since our evaluation ended on Thursday but we have been a little occupied with being in the hospital again with pneumonia. I started having fever on Wednesday and it got worse Thursday night so we went to the ER and have been in the hospital since then. Putting that aside, the evaluation was a long tiring and sometimes frustrating week but we are thankful to have it done and are hopefully for the future. We so much appreciate your prayers though!! I hope to go home from the hospital in a day or two and pray the antibiotics work. It was been a very long week and I feel pretty drained in everyway but with the help of family and friends they have tried to keep me encouraged. God has blessed us and continues as always to hold us in the hard times.

Jason is hanging in there and continues to be the wonderful encouraging and loving husband. He is trying to teach Faith to say......Chevy, Chevy, Chevy! He wants to make sure she grows up right. =)

Faith is growing and "talking" all the time! She loves to suck on her toes, go on walks and eat pickles, oranges and apples ( or at least suck them dry!). Mama bought her, her first pair of flip flops (you can never have enough flip flops) along with her first two piece swim suite. She is one cute, hot little babe!

Thank you again for your prayers and support. It really means so much to have so many people support us. We love ya!

Love~ Em

Evaluation Week

We could use your prayers this week as I go in for the evaluation for the transplant. I will be doing a series of tests Monday through Thursday and will go back on April 4th to find out if I will be able to be on the list. We are praying for wisdom as we make some medical decisions and one of those possibly involves stem cells. There is a doctor in California who is very interested in CF and stem cell research and through a family member heard about me and is interested in my case. It's still new stuff for us and we should be talking to the doctor on Monday to get more information. The procedure sounds amazing and has potential for some very positive results for CF patients as well as many other diseases. To make a long story short we are just looking at every option and hopefully prolonging the transplant as long as we can. I am ready to get this week over but I do appreciate your prayers and support!

Love~ Emily

P.S~ If you are interested in learning more about the stem cell research and CF you can go to www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/102/1/186.

Chest tube out!

Hey Everyone!

I'm sure most of you have heard by now but I just wanted to send out an e-mail just in case to let everyone know I did get my chest tube out a week ago. They removed it on Valentines Day (wonderful gift) and so far things have gone pretty well. I stay tired a lot with my oxygen being on the low end but I am so thankful to have the tube out and be able to take showers again!! We are still waiting to hear back from the transplant office on when my full evaluation will be. From what I have heard they have had quite a lot of people since Christmas trying to get on the list. We'll let you know when we get it scheduled.

Jason and I celebrated our 4th anniversary and my sister was in town so she watched Faith and we headed to Birmingham to go celebrate! It was a funny feeling not doing the baby check to go out.....diapers, wipes, milk, blanket, baby...... check check check! Or having to eat fast before Faith decided she was ready to be held. Anyway, it was a great time and we were happy to see our little Tatters when we got home! Hope you all are doing well and we always love getting your e-mails and updates!

Love~ Em

**This post was added from Emily T in 2010 from an email from Emily

Update on the transplant

Hey Everyone~

I know many of you prayed for us today as we went to the pre-evaluation for a lung transplant at UAB. Dr. Young started the CF clinic here in Birmingham and he is also on the transplant team. We were very impressed with him and felt very comfortable with his care. He felt the need to be on the transplant list was very crucial. He mentioned that for reason's not known, CF women tend to decline quicker then CF men and he was concerned that my descent was beginning. He would like to continue on with my full evaluation as soon as possible in hopes to finally get on the list. There are lots of other details we talked about and with my right lung having collapsed twice already it has very quickly left me with the only option to do a double lung transplant.

To be fully honest it has been an emotional battle for me today. Satan would love to plague me with all the what-if, my spirit is willing but my flesh is soooo weak. I feel like my prayer for a while now has been, "God I believe.......but please help my unbelief." I know God is in control and thanks to the blessing of my husband, he was able to help me continue to count my blessings today.

1) God moved us to Cullman because he KNEW the future and KNEW we needed to be an hour away from a transplant clinic. Since we only live 45 min. from Birmingham we can continue to live at home!

2) Dr. Young has worked with many CF patients and transplants and I like him. (That's hard to do if you know anything about my history with doctors.) :-)

3) We were given a beautiful baby girl despite my sick body. (Which Dr. Young was very impressed by........God still does miracles)

4) We have wonderful family and friends who love us and have been the best support and strength to us!

I feel tired and weak from the past several months and to think about beginning this new journey is over whelming at times but I know we will just take one day at a time and God will give us strength for each day. Thanks again for your prayers and love!

Love~ Em

HOME!

PRAISE GOD!

We got to come home today! The air leak is pretty well closed up but the doctors wanted me to continue the chest tube another week just to make sure it has fully healed. Thankfully I did not have to go home with the IV's. Though we were very excited to go home, I don't think the nurses were quite as excited to see Faith leave. =) She had lots of people to say good-bye too. =)

Thanks again for all the support! We just ask that you would continue to pray that my lung would stay strong and we would not have a repeat of this again. Let us know how you and your families are doing. We love ya!

Love~ Em

Hospital update

Well, today marks our 2 weeks in the hospital and we truly have turned my room into our little apartment. I'm sure Faith thinks we have moved into a house full of beeps, noises, people coming and going and our wonderful stroller rides around the halls. She has made quite a name for her self though and between the nurses, doctors, dietetion, x-ray, lab and respertory she gets lots odietitianon. Its not easy being a princess but someone has to do it. :-)

Mom is slowly getting better. I was taken off the suction last week and my lung went down a little again. It has not fully re-inflated again but at least it is staying the same without the suction. The doctors have talked about going home on the tube but if I do it won't be for a couple of days still. The air leak is getting better but it is just a slow process. Thankfully we were able to change our evaluation for the transplant till next week.
It's not always easy trying to understand God's ways or why he chooses to do curtain things but in times of need it can also be a time to see the strong hand of God move not always to move the mountain but to hold his hand in a way you never have before. We always want to be close to God but we don't want to go through the refining fire to become more like him. We truly have been blessed by friends and family during this time and our little Faith reminds us that God loves to give his children good gifts. Thanks for your prayers!

Love~ Em

P.S- Thought you would enjoy these pictures of Faith strolling down the hospital halls.......of course in style!

Pictures of Faith

Hello Everyone~

Sorry its taken me so long to get some pictures out again. We are in the hospital again and so I am not doing much of anything at this point. My right lung collapsed again and it's been a long week with a chest tube. Again we are so thankful for the support and prayers that go out for us and even though I hope to get better my base line is not very high anymore. We will visit the lung transplant team the end of this month and hope to begin that journey soon.
Well, we love you all and hope you enjoy these pictures of our "tatters". (For those of you who don't know her nick name..........sack of tatters) =) She is smiling,talking, sleeping through the night (praise the Lord!) and just the joy of our lives! Love to hear how you all doing and if we can be praying for you.


Love~ Emily, Jason, & Faith