Veya Hope VanderBrugghen

We have been a bit silent here on the blog, mainly because things have somewhat quieted down for Veya, but in the quietness, there has been more time for reflection…and some discussion amongst her team here about transferring her care back to McMaster.   So with that all we have just been processing some emotions that have surfaced together from our time here at Sick Kids.   Living life in the CICU has been incredibly eye opening in more ways than one.   There have been things we felt prepared for and so many things that we were not.   It can be easy to live one breath to the next, but the reality of just how fragile our lives are….escapes us most days. We didn’t expect how much we would be impacted by every other family that shared the room with us these past couple of months, watching them go through the hardest moments of their lives too.   Our chests would tighten every time the alarms went off and our hearts would ache having watched parents walk down the hallway with tears stre

"And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Peace! Be Still!" And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm." Mark 4:39 Veya is now nine days post op. and in the words of her medical team “She is THRIVING” She is doing so incredibly well!   Better than they were expecting! Veya was monitored for 48 hours for potential seizures following her repair, thankfully those scans came back clear for her. A few days later, they removed her chest tube drain, her external pacemaker and a few other lines that were there to support her heart during the critical phases of recovery.   We were introduced to a new group of medical folks, the immunology team because it was discovered during Veya’s heart surgery that she was missing what is called her Thymus Gland.   This gland sits on top of our heart and is responsible for the growth, development and training of our T Cells which are very important to our immune system function, especially for babies and young chil

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you."  1 Peter 5:6 Last week it felt like God had another teaching moment for me and it was the realization that sometimes He will allow you in a battle empty handed so that when you DO get the victory, you’ll know it wasn’t you, but Him! Little did I know that soon I would smile and say “God this is more than I prayed for”.  I couldn’t see how God was going to do it, just like Abraham didn’t see how he’d be the father of many nations.  The Israelites didn’t see how they’d escape from Egypt.  Joseph didn’t see how he’d get out of prison. I couldn’t see how we would get Veya to a safe place for her to receive her open-heart surgery …but GOD did it! He made a way for it! Veya received her long-awaited surgery!  (typing that out feels so surreal) On Easter Monday, we received the news from the medical team that Veya would go for her full repair the following Tuesday morning.   (