Veya Hope VanderBrugghen

"Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me.  The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord endures forever.  Do not forsake the work of your hands."  Psalm 138: 7-8 Hello from McMaster’s PICU! Yes, you read that right 😊 …we have been moved back to Hamilton and what a whirlwind of three weeks we just had!   Veya was transferred back to McMaster on Monday (May 13 th ) and it went a bit smoother than her last transfer. (How we feel about it is a very loaded answer, we love both hospitals for different reasons but I’ll save that for a later post) There have been so many moving parts, it made it difficult to hop on here, but now that we are settled in and the mental gymnastics have calmed down a bit….we are back with an update!   As you can see, the Sick Kids team switched gears again and they decided to just go for it and perform the specializ

Quickly stopping in here again to say hello from the Ronald McDonald House 😊   I had to leave Veya’s room for the time being as the team is about to perform a procedure for one of her roommates….so while I wait to be let back in I thought why not go have some lunch, soak up some of this beautiful sunshine, and pass along another update to everyone! (Please bear with me as I try my best to explain what the next little while is going to look like for Veya and our family.) For those of you who have experienced living the hospital life, you know all to well that plans and schedules seem to change faster than you can blink.   This morning I learned that Veya’s team has decided to forgo their plans for conducting a standard MRI and are currently working out new plans to send her for a more specialized MRI test called a MRCP.   Through this test they will be able to look at the bilary and pancreatic system in much more detail for the pockets of fluid (cysts) and blockages in the duct

"For the  mountains may depart  and the hills be removed,  but my steadfast love shall not depart from you,  and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,”  says the Lord, who has compassion on you.  Isaiah 54:10 I’m back here a little sooner than I was planning as it seems that we have encountered a few “setbacks” and concerns about Veya’s overall health this week. The team has still been unable to successfully identify where her infection is coming from.   The assumed abscess in in her abdomen has not resolved with the two week course of antibiotics like they were hoping for.   Her liver enzymes keep climbing (normal range is under 113 and Veya’s has peaked to 805) which is urging the team to look into things a bit further.   We had to put a pause on weaning her sedation medications and we had to move back up from CPAP settings to BIPAP settings for her oxygen support.   We also have the genetics team back in the picture with a new found discovery.   Needless to say, yesterday