Month: August 2011

This past Sunday was a very special day. During the 9am service, after an incredible worship experience, Pastor Dino asked me to share Hannah’s story. Delynn led the entire congregation in an incredible prayer for Hannah, asking God for her complete healing. We are so blessed to be in a church who is standing with us in prayer for Hannah and her heart condition! I cannot brag enough about our pastoral staff and about the spiritual and emotional support we’ve received from them. Words cannot express how truly thankful and grateful we are for you!

Hannah did another holter monitor on Friday, and I turned it in Monday morning. Tuesday morning, we received the following from her cardiologist:

“Wow. So much better. Zero SVT. I mean none, nada, nil. Peak HR 133.”

PRAISE GOD! Not only did she not have ANY sign of arrhythmia, but her peak heart rate had dropped by 100 bpm! God is so faithful! I knew the results would be good, since we noticed an immediate increase in her appetite and energy level after starting the Propranolol, but this is just OVER THE TOP GOOD NEWS!

Dr. Brumund has sent this holter, along with the others, to the electrophysiology team at Ochsner in New Orleans.  At some point they will want to meet with us and discuss our options regarding ablation. The great thing is that her current meds are working perfectly, and her ventricular function will continue to be excellent, so there is no crisis forcing us to make a decision immediately. If we are to go through this ablation procedure, we want to make sure she’s healthy, and that the team of doctors performing the procedure are comfortable with the entire situation.

I’ll keep you all posted as soon as we know anything else. In the meantime, praise God for what He has done and continues to do! And please keep Hannah in your prayers. We know that God is not through yet! I cannot wait to see what He has in store for her! What a powerful testimony she already has! Lori and I both feel like God is telling us to be patient and keep relying on Him. So we will! And there will be victory in the NAME of JESUS!

Hannah’s cardiologist called me today and relayed the bad news that her Holter monitor results were not good.  She had over 2 hours of atrial tachycardia, with peak heart rate of 232.  So the increased dose of Flecainide did not correct the issue.  We were wondering what was taking so long to get the Holter results back, and it was because he was consulting with the electrophysiology team from Ochsner about a possible ablation attempt.  Success rates for ablation are VERY good (>80%).

So the good news is that overall she is very healthy.  Her ventricular function is excellent, so it’s not like we’re having to deal with this in addition to congestive heart failure or poor ventricular function.  We knew we would be going down this road eventually, after realizing that she had not outgrown the arrhythmia a few years ago.  Medication can and will continue to keep the problem under control, but it will only control the problem, not correct it.

The main electrophysiologist at Ochsner is out of town this week, so early next week Dr. Brumund will be speaking to him and formulating a game plan.  At some point Lori, Hannah, and I will go down there to meet with the team and discuss our options.  For right now, the addition of Propranolol should help keep both her rhythm and rate under control until the ablation procedure is performed.  It will take a few days for the Propranolol to reach steady state in her blood stream, so we will do another Holter monitor on Friday.

Please continue to pray for Hannah, that God would totally deliver her from this arrhythmia!  Pray that He will give us wisdom and guidance so that we can make the best decision for our little princess.

Can you believe it, Hannah is 5 years old!!!  She is growing up so fast.  If you hear her talk, you would think she was 25 years old.  She is already so grown up for her age.  I’ve never heard a 5-year old communicate so well!

It’s been a while since we’ve updated the site, so let me catch you up.  Last summer, she was completely weaned off the amiodarone.  Unfortunately, she went back into her atrial tachycardia, so she was admitted to OLOL to get on telemetry while Dr. Brumund started her new Flecainide treatment.  There are several benefits of being on Flecainide as opposed to Amiodarone — firstly, Flecainide doesn’t mess with your thyroid at all.  So she finally has a FULL head of HAIR!!!  The other benefit to Flecainide is its half-life, which is only 8-12 hours (rather than Amiodarone’s 90-day half-life).  Which means, if Dr. Brumund decides that ablation is the best option, all we have to do is stop giving her Flecainide and go in to the cath lab after only a few days (rather than waiting 3 months with Amiodarone).  So she has been on Flecainide for the last year, has gone through several Holter monitors with outstanding results!  She still has a few recurring episodes of SVT, but the rhythm is sinus, so that’s not too big of a deal.  The important thing is that she has had no more episodes of atrial tachycardia!

That is, until last week.  On Thursday, she had a checkup with Dr. Brumund.  She had labs drawn (which she was not a big fan of), an EKG, ECHO, and a Holter monitor.  Unfortunately, the Holter revealed some episodes of atrial tachycardia, so Dr. Brumund has increased her dose of Flecainide to 60mg from 40mg.  Her levels showed that she is still on a moderate dose of Flecainide, so he is confident that the increased dosage will help keep the atrial tachycardia under control.  So on Tuesday, she will see Dr. Brumund again, do another EKG and Holter monitor, and get more labs drawn to check Flecainide levels.  Please pray that the increased dosage keeps her atrial tachycardia under control!  We know that God is STILL totally in control, and we know that in the end HE will prevail over this heart condition!

If the results of the next Holter still show signs of atrial tachycardia, Dr. Brumund may put her back on Propranolol, a beta blocker that helps control rate, and works well with Flecainide to control ectopic arrhythmia.  Or, he may suggest that we go ahead and try a round of RF ablation, which has a 99% success rate.  Either way, we know that our God is still on the throne, and has His hand on this precious girl!

In other news, Hannah starts KINDERGARTEN on Wednesday!  We cannot believe that this little miracle is so grown up.  She continues to amaze us in every way.  Nothing gets past her (which is a blessing AND a curse).  She has the most remarkable memory of any child I’ve ever known.  Of course you always brag about your own kids, but seriously, Hannah is so smart it’s kinda scary…

So anyway, that’s the latest on Hannah.  I will try to keep her website more up-to-date than I have.  And I will post pictures soon, I promise!  Please continue to pray for her complete healing!

-Greg