Hi everyone,

Sorry we haven’t updated for a while, life has been a little crazy. Heidi has done quite a bit on Facebook, but we thought we’d update here as well.

As you probably know, Natalie was recovering from her open heart procedure and she wound up catching the flu (H1N1). This set her recovery back quite a bit. Just when it seemed she was getting better, she had a really bad day last Wednesday and they found out she had contracted pneumonia. So, it took her quite a bit of time to recover enough from that so they could do the cath procedure. They finally were able to do that yesterday.

The cath showed that the numbers were where they expected. Dr. delNido is deciding whether or not he needs to tighten the bands on her pulmonary arteries a little more or not. If so, he would have to open the chest cavity again. It would be a minor procedure compared to the others she has been through, and it shouldn’t take long for Natalie to recover. Or, he may decide that he doesn’t need to do anything; we should know more later today.

Natalie is doing well. Her numbers improve every day, and we’re hoping that they’ll allow her to wake up slowly over the next day or two. Maybe they’ll be able to extubate by this weekend. We pray that she can recover from all she’s been through and finally begin to get well and return to her normal self. It seems like an eternity since we’ve had Natalie with us.

I’m back in Bismarck this week working. Heidi’s parents have been out there, which has helped immensely. Heidi’s dad left this morning to go back home, and her mom will be there until next week. I’ll fly out next Friday to spend the weekend, and hopefully, a discharge date will be close by then.

Thank all of you again for all the prayers and support as Natalie goes through all of this, we really appreciate it. We will try to update more often, and we hope to all be together at home again soon.