Archive for October, 2009

Aaron Tanner Blood Drive

Monday, October 26th, 2009

Aaron Tanner needs your Blood!

Location:  Eastside Church of Christ,
1020 East Tregallas Rd, Antioch, CA
 
Time: 1:30 p.m. until 7:00 p.m.
Date:  Monday, November 30th, 2009

A Blood Drive is being held in honor of Aaron Tanner’s quest to find a new heart and kidney. Aaron needs to have blood available, for a successful transplant operation when the time comes. Donors with O Positive blood are encouraged to donate.

Want to find out more about donating blood please visit http://www.givelife.org/.

Contact Tim Kyle
Tim_kc6qlv@hotmail.com
(510) 377-4703

Jump for Heart Event

Monday, October 26th, 2009

Benefiting Aaron Tanner Heart Foundation

Holy Rosary School (students only)
October 29th, 2009

This will be a free dress day (red and white) for the students. If you would like to purchase a “Aaron Tanner Heart Foundation T-shirt” for your child to wear, please contact me by Wednesday, October 21st with the size(s) you would like. Include your phone number and your child’s grade and teachers names. Proceeds from shirts sales will benefit the ATHF. T-shirts are $15.00 and are available in adult and youth sizes.
 
Please DO NOT contact the school office for information or questions regarding the t-shirts. They are not sponsoring the sale of the shirts. Please contact me with any questions.

We also have rubber bracelets for sale, they say, “Aaron has captured our Heart.”  Contact Kc Lucido for T shirts and bracelets.

***Please pass this email on to anyone that you think might be interesting in purchasing a shirt.***
 
Thank you and God Bless!
KC Lucido
925-783-7658
klucido@pacbell.net

Waiting is Hard!

Sunday, October 18th, 2009

Praising God for all he is going to do lifting him up in anticipation of Aaron’s miracle.

Prayers for Noelle

We are asking God for strength for my Dear friend Noelle and her son. I am so torn apart by what she is going through. It does seem like things are so unfair. Noelle is such a good spirit, an Angel on earth. She would do anything, for anyone and now she has been widowed at such a young age, and suddenly with no way to prepare for this devastation.

Her husband Joel was so young and am told he was in tip top shape, the last person you could imagine that this would happen to. We have to cherish every moment with our loved ones. I was told that Noelle tried to donate Joel’s organs and designate them for Aaron.

I am asking our glorious God to surround her with friends and family to help her morn her loss. To give her the peace and strength that he so promised us at these times.

Aaron’s Heart is being Stressed

I am also asking God again to put his hands on Aaron’s heart and stop the erratic heart beats that he is having. We were moved into the ICU at 2:00 a.m.; Aaron has continued to have PVC’s and bigeminies one after another for hours on end.

Doctors thought they were due to his electrolytes and they have corrected all that and they are still occurring. They are telling us his heart is under stress and trying to compensate. The monitor alarms constantly and the nurses are coming in each time to check and we are constantly watching and asking if he feels okay.

The three of us have not had much sleep in the past few days. Aaron was awake from the move to ICU. Mark and I both are constantly jumping to see the monitor that now is more alarming to all.

They have stabilized Aaron as much as they can for now; it is truly in God’s hands. They say the erratic heart beats can stop on there own or cause a catastrophic event so it is hard to just sit back and wait.

Ready for Surgery

Aaron is ready for transplant now; he will be listed the moment Dr. Lax’s (the transplant surgeon) airplane lands. I believe he returns Wednesday maybe Thursday. So he can be ready any moment after that. There is another transplant surgeon here at UCLA but Dr. Lax is the only one in the world that can do Aarons surgery.

Aaron will be listed 1A top of list that means, when an organ his size and blood type becomes available it will be offered to him. The transplant team consisting of a renal transplant doctor and heart transplant doctor will go to the hospital wherever it may be and evaluate and determine if the organs are okay for Aaron. It will all happen pretty fast once the wheels start turning.

They had talked about discharging us to wait and I do not know how that stands anymore since he is having these episodes I am praying that they correct themselves.

Thanking you for following Aaron’s story and for sharing it with so many. I am trying to keep everyone updated. We are so overwhelmed by the love from all. Please continue to keep Aaron in your prayers. I am looking forward to telling all that it is his moment and we are going into surgery. God Bless Elizabeth Tanner

Your Prayers Sustain Us

Saturday, October 17th, 2009

Prayer warriors, we have been here two weeks. Things are on such a fast pace. 

Early this afternoon (October 13, 2009) Aaron underwent his second MRI.  He had one shortly before we left UCSF, but those images are not clear enough for the transplant surgeon, Dr. Lax, to map out the transplant. Aaron, also with being a hyperplasic left heart baby, has left atrial isomerism and heterotaxy and he is a single ventricle kid. His insides are all different than most congenital heart children. 

Wonderful Doctors

For 4-years he has been walking around and he was very sick inside his medications and surgeries were helping him. We being here with Dr. Lax are the best thing that has happened to Aaron, he is one of only maybe a few that could do this transplant. He has done them before and he has done them before with success.  Once Aaron has this transplant he will be more or less cured of his major heart problem and should be able to live a normal life.

Aaron will be listed in just a few days and he will be listed with status A1 that is the very top. When the doctor is off and not available to do surgery they are talking about putting Aaron on as status 7 that means he accrues time, but he will not be called if organ becomes available only because Dr.  Lax is the only one of the transplant doctors that can do this. Luckily enough Dr. Lax is pretty much here 24 /7. 

I think he is taking a couple days off next week, so Aaron will be status 7 for a couple  days but that means they have faith that it could happen any moment once listed. All that is happening is very good they are taking such care with everything that is happening. God has put us here for a reason and put us into the hands of a very capable cardiac team. We will have Dr. Lax as his surgeon and Dr. Alejos and Dr. Greg Perens as his cardiologist team.

Hospital Discharge

We will be discharged from the hospital maybe early next week can you believe it. We have been in the hospital since June, he will remain on his milrinome IV medication, and be assigned a home health care nurse that will check on us .

We will be nearby the hospital, their only fear is that he could go into tachycardia, but so far he has been stable the entire time. We are still in the process of trying to find housing we have a couple temporary situations. Nothing long term or permanent yet. 

The doctors feel he would have a much better quality of life right know outside the hospital being here is so hard on him. He is only 4 so I have such a hard time rationalizing it all with him. He is also at his witts end with it all. He was in the ICU almost all of that time so he has had his vitals done every two hours and had bandages changed over and over again and now his dialysis.

God Loves the Little Children

The only way I think I have managed this far is with the love from all back at home and with the Love of God, when I think I cant do it anymore and I just want to take him away from all this I always pray and somehow God has been there each and every time. He shows himself in the love from so many at home and in the love and support from our family.

Aaron is scheduled to have his MRI this early afternoon and I spent most of the morning signing consents as well as listening to the doctors explain his odds and possible outcomes and hearing that regardless he had to do this. There is a small chance that since he is in kidney failure he could have a bad reaction to the dye that is used in this MRI and develop an auto immune disease.

So, being here alone I was very scarred and nervous. Before coffee or anything this morning I was given a letter from father Dismas, telling me to stay strong it was probably sent a week ago but did not arrive till this morning.

Then Aaron and I went to the playroom when we returned there was a card from father Dismas, sent on an entirely different date that arrived also fatefully today letting us know that our family at Holy Rosary is praying for a safe and sound return home. 

That was not just chance — that was OUR GOD answering my prayers. These kind situations have happened on so many occasions throughout this whole ordeal. I was so sadden about being alone today and I was being told that I was not alone. 

Rejoice in all you have not the things because they are just that things, rejoice in having God be with you when you need it most and even when you don’t realize it. I am suffering immensely but Our Lord over and over again will not let me suffer alone he is here with Aaron and I time and time again.

God Bless you all prayer Warriors and thank you for your continued support. We are just beginning to climb this mountain.   We don’t know how long it will take but we can do it.

Haunted House

Saturday, October 17th, 2009

Holy Rosary ARK presents the 2nd Annual Haunted House, held at Holy Rosary Life House on October 30th & 31st. Join us a for spooky good time.

What: Haunted House
Where: Holy Rosary Life House, 1313 A St., Antioch, CA
When: Friday, Oct 30th and Saturday, October 31st, 2009
Time:  5:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m.
Admission: $5.00 adults/ $3.00 children (ages 10 and under)

Proceeds to benefit The Aaron Tanner Foundation