Kunefke.US

I added a new addition to our yard this morning.

Please continue to pray for our nation’s future and our leadership.  We need God’s help.

I’ve been in Phoenix for the past two weeks training for work.  I’m coming back home in the morning.  I’ve been getting really homesick and really look forward to being home.

Lily is doing ok.  The doctors think the risk of going into surgery is a little too high when compared to waiting until she is old enough to have the pace-maker put in.  She has already been back to wear a heart monitor for 24 hours, and the results came back the same… her heart rate was the same as it was when she was in the hospital in early February.

I don’t have a lot more to say… I’m really just looking forward to getting back home and in almost the usual routine.  I plan to make a few more changes in the way I spend my time at home.

My youngest daughter, Lily, who turned 3 in November has been sick on and off for the past few weeks.  It was a viral infection mainly, and it was being treated, but we were passing it back and forth through the entire family and that kinda made it hard to rid the house of illness.

Alaina, who turned 8 this month, is also still sick, but Christle and I are over it.

We thought Lily had an allergic reaction to the medicine she was taking, so we called the doctor and he prescribed something else.  Her feet started swelling on Monday, as well as a rash that would swell and itch, moving to different parts of her body.  Later on, her hands, elbows, and knees started swelling, and after dinner, she got up to leave the dinner table and apparently had weak knees.  She said they hurt, so we called the doctor.

The doctor said that she should go to the emergency room, because the symptoms didn’t match any that were related to the medicine she was taking.  Christle opted to take her to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.  They got there around 8:30pm and didn’t get in to see a doctor until around 5am, even though she was placed on the urgent care list… the emergency room was very busy.  Her swelling didn’t get worse, but it didn’t get a whole lot better.  She was very uncomfortable, though.

During the routine of checking her rash and swelling, they would monitor her pulse.  Over time, they noticed that the rate was in the 50-55 bpm when she was calm.  Now, her rate at this age should be anywhere from 80 – 100.  Now, when they first saw this, the first reaction was that it could possibly mean she had rheumatic fever, which is a virus that could potentially affect the heart.  Blood tests came back negative on that.

After X-rays, and an ultrasound of her heart, they hypothesized that she may have a “Heart Block“.  They put her on a heart monitor and started keeping a record for 24 hours.  During the night, while sleeping good, her heart rate got down to 30.  Dr. Cannon, a cardiologist who specializes in electrophysiology, said that after reviewing the ultrasound and X-rays, said that she has a Third Degree or Complete Heart Block.

Basically, this means that the heart’s electrical signal doesn’t pass from the upper to the lower chambers.  This does not mean that the blood flow or blood vessels are blocked.  Her oxygen levels are good, and there is good flow.  The best guess at this point is that it is congenital heart block.  In other words, she’s had this since birth or even before birth.  The best guess we have right now as to why it hasn’t been detected before is that she was upset any time she was taken to the doctor, so her heart rate would have been high enough to pass as normal.  Anytime a doctor or nurse would come in and start messing with her, her rate would climb up to anywhere from 70 – 85 bpm.

Our current situation is that she will need a pace-maker.  The doctors think the risk of sending her home without one is worse than going through the surgery first.

At her age, they will have to do surgery to actually sew the leads directly on the heart.  We’re not sure if it will be open heart, or endoscopic surgery, yet.  When it comes time to replace it, if the leads come disconnected, or the battery starts to get low, there are less invasive procedures for older children and adults.  She will still lead an active lifestyle, except for certain activities including contact sports… so she wont be able to play football when she gets older.

The surgery has not been scheduled yet, but the doctors are working on the schedule now.  It will probably take place before the end of next week.

I couldn’t explain how we are handling this mentally.  Christle and I are both very upset about it.  On the other hand, though, most people do not detect this problem until they are in their teens.  God has blessed us, in that we stumbled upon the problem early enough to detect and possibly prevent something that could have happened in the future had we not found it now.  With the many illnesses and hardships that happen with children, we are most certainly blessed.

Lily is staying in the cardiology department at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.  If you call the hospital, you can ask for volunteer services and they will make out a post card for you to send to her in your name.  She’s already gotten a few and it really makes her day to receive mail.  She does not understand the circumstances, as you can imagine.  I just found this link to do it from their web site.  You’ll need to use her full name, so if you don’t have it, call me or send me an email.

But more importantly, I ask for your prayers.  First, I ask for your prayers for Lily, that she would either be completely healed or have a flawless surgery and quick healing from the surgery.  Secondly, I ask that you pray for my wife, Christle.  I ask that you also pray for Alaina.  She is aware of the circumstances, and even though she doesn’t fully understand the situation, she’s scared for her little sister.  She can’t be there right now because she’s been sick, and we don’t want to risk getting Lily sick before surgery.  Please pray for my parents and Christle’s parents, because I know they feel as helpless as we do.  Pray for me.  I’m barely holding it together right now, and I want to be wholly available for the rest of my family to depend on.

Thank you in advance for your prayers…

Well, this month has gone by rather quickly. I made an A in my Summer I class, had a break, and am nearly 60% through Summer II. The new job is going better than expected, and the company I’m working for is the primary reason for that.

Happy Anniversary, Christle! Nine short years down, and many more to come. I am happy we started this nine years ago today.

I’ll try to post more often about stuff other than myself in the future.

A lot seems to have happened since my last post.  I’ll keep it short, though.

I started my new degree plan at LIT this semester.  I am studying for an Associates in Instrumentation Technology.  It should allow me to stay busy throughout my life.  So far, I’m doing very well in all three of my classes, and it doesn’t look like that will change.

Heroes started back up last week, and it looks very interesting.  Before that comes on, Chuck is pretty funny.  It just doesn’t look like it can last very long.  It looks like it has a low budget, but I don’t know if it will have the ratings to stay on.  It was funny to see the reference to “Oceanic 815″ from LOST.  Apparently it was shot down.  That had to be a real part of LOST.  I don’t see how ABC could throw that in without it having some truth.  Journeyman, however, looks great.  I like the concept, and the realistic consequences of his time travel makes it even better.  The main character, Kevin McKidd, was in ROME, and is the perfect part for this character.  It’s amazing how much younger they can make him look.

Alaina began piano lessons last week, and she’s really enjoying it.  After only one lesson, it’s difficult to know how well she’ll do, but we’ll wait and see.  She started going to dance classes this week.  She is in Jazz, Ballet, and Tumbling.  She’s very excited about this because she is always dancing, and has always wanted a stage to do it on.  Now she can practice and perform in front of everyone at the end of the year.  Her teacher says she did very well for her first day.

I don’t remember if I’d posted this before, but I got an accoustic guitar back in May and I’ve been practicing a lot over the past month.  I’ve finally started developing some callouses on my left hand’s fingers from playing so much.  I’m starting to get the keys down right, and I’m pretty close to being able to play all the way through a few songs without messing up too much.

The Texas Rice Festival is this weekend, and I’m looking forward to seeing a few people I haven’t seen in years.  Usually this is the only time of the year that people from here come back home, and hang out in public for everyone else to visit with.  It should be a fun weekend.

I guess that sums it up better than I thought it would.

Well, March has arrived quickly this year.  I didn’t post much last month, but we all deserve a little break every now and then.  I plan to post more often, although I know that’s always what I’ve planned to do.

The family’s been sick for the past few weeks.  It’s been pretty rough suffering with illness.  I thank God that it is not what it could be.  These things are temporary, but could be far worse.

I’m trying to kill a opossum that’s been sneaking around my house.  Everytime I see it, I have forgotten my gun, and every time I bring my gun, I can’t seem to find it.

My new classes start in two days.  I am looking forward to the new challenges that will come with them.  I plan to get my coursework done early so that I will not have to struggle with due dates.

My grandmother wasn’t breathing for over 10 minutes yesterday.  The tests have confirmed that she has barely any brain activity at all.  The breathing machine will be removed in the morning.

I spent some time at the hospital this afternoon.  It hit me harder than I thought it would.  The hardest part was seeing Dad and Grandpa saying goodbye.

Grandpa told me that for the past few years at night before bed that he’d play his harmonica for Grandma.  He said that for the past few weeks that he’d been playing “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You” for her every night.  He said that when he finished, she’d just say “I love you, too, Honey”.  He’s really happy that she’s not in pain any more.

They raised a family rooted in God and His Word.  They have remained faithful to studying their Bible, and keeping active in their prayer life which amounts to keeping up their relationships with God.

Grandma will be sorely missed.  She has been a real blessing in mine and many other lives.

Happy Birthday!  I hope you have a wonderful day.

I have finally finished my first semester back to school.  I have a final average of 99.2 and 95.9 in my two classes, and both averages are higher than they were at the middle of the semester.

I knew that the semester would be short, but in the middle of it, I thought it wouldn’t end.  Two more weeks of rest before the next semester starts… I’m trying to enjoy it.

Happy Birthday!!!