"We Love Andrea" was created to update Andrea's friends as she went through a difficult journey. After her second heart transplant when her pulse began to speed up she was given a pacemaker, then a Heart Mate II or LVAD. She was in the Stollery Children's Hospital, then the Mazankowski heart unit in Edmonton, Alberta for 7 months. However, she peacefully died on May 11, 2011 when the rest of her heart and other organs could handle the strain no longer. If you come to this blog, pray for her family and friends, remember to tell your friends you love them, then sign your organ donor card.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Even Better

Today Andrea spent a while on the bike at physiotherapy. Which, of course, is a good thing because activity regulates your body and yada yada yada. It also meant she had a bit of energy which she's been lacking in. Just a short update, but that's a big step up from where she was a few days ago!
Andrea just texted, they're talking weekend pass and being released end-ish of next week!

Monday, October 25, 2010

Better Today

I went to see Andrea today and she's doing some better. Her creatinine levels were down a little, to 393, and her pacemaker is set to let her heart go no lower than 90 bpm (beats per minute) which means that they can treat her too-fast heart rate (it changes a lot) without fear of it dipping too low. She's lost 8 or 9 pounds of fluid and is moving around a lot more but still is weak and finds it hard to eat. But her courage was great :) and her eyes still sparkle! Over-all, it was a definitely encouraging, she's back in her old room with the sunny window.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Creatinine Levels Up

Andrea's creatinine level, the level of waste in the kidneys, is 4 or 5 times what it should be, over 400 instead of 80-100.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Good Morning!

Yesterday evening I heard that Andrea's pacemaker was up and running just like it's supposed to. However, she was in a lot of pain because they wrench your shoulder open to insert the pacemaker... Also her... um I think the word is creatinine?... levels are extremely high. This means her kidneys aren't flushing out as well as they should again. However, one possible cause for this is that she was under anaesthetic and given morphine for the pain so of course that all has to be flushed out by the kidneys and we all know too many drugs mess up the kidneys :)
But its still good news that her heart is beating well because that regulates and improves the whole body!

Friday, October 22, 2010

Succesful Surgery

Last I heard yesterday the pace-maker surgery was successful and Andrea was sleeping. Hooray!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Pacemaker

Hey any of you Edberg people got the quick alert this morning that Andrea was going into surgery. This morning at 7 AM she had an MRI and was likely getting a pacemaker put in at 9 AM. I don't know how any of it went, and I don't want to bug Maynards to find out...
But for those of you who want to know more about such, here's Wikipedias link to pacemakers- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_pacemaker
Basically, its a little electronic device below the skin that keeps the heart beating regularly. And people can have long healthy lives with them, they do not limit life expectancy.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

No News

I haven't heard anything new today so I suppose that's good?
Last I heard (the other day) her kidneys were functioning better, but she still has a ways to go... The doctors had wanted to do an MRI but for that you have to lie perfectly still, on your back, for quite a while and she's unable to lie on her back because the fluid in her body makes it hard to breathe. Then they tried placing a special camera on her chest but the weight was hard for her to handle... But still no word on whether she got or is getting a pacemaker.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Moved to PICU

Just time for a quick update before work... Maynard just called and said Andrea's heart is all over again so their planning on putting in a pace-maker. As well, she's being moved into PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit)

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Saturday, October 16, 10

I just got a text from Andrea. She said she was feeling better (hooray!!!!!!!!) and that she had lost 8 pounds! And yes, that is a good thing, because that's extra fluids that make her sluggish and too full to eat and overwork her heart and make it hard to breathe...
That's all the info I have for now but I'm pumped enough that's good that I thought it was worth sharing :)

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Just to start

A lot of people have been wondering how Andrea's doing so I'm starting a blog to keep us all updated. If any of you know something I don't, email me or leave me a comment to let me know.
Here's the scoop. We all know Andrea had two heart transplants, the last one was something like seven years ago. And typically heart transplants require a lot of anti-rejection drugs, which damages kidneys. About a year ago, she started having an increased heart rate, which the doctors thought was from scar tissue, so this spring, i think, she had a procedure to help that. It didn't last, so it was rescheduled for the end of September. About two weeks before the date, she got very nauseated and Maynards brought her to emerge. She was transfered to Edmonton where she's been since, except for two days Thanksgiving weekend. Now, this is where the kidneys come in, they've failed or are failing or whatever, which basically means fluids aren't leaving her body so she's terribly bloated and weak. What's more, her heart has been really slow, except yesterday it started jumping all over the place, which makes her terribly nauseated.
So to sum it all up, her future is at stake and we all need to pray that, if God will, He'll heal her heart and kidneys and give her another 80 years!!!