Catherine made it on the jumbotron!
It's official, she made it!
Catherine graduated from Wichita State University with a Bachelor of Arts.
Way to go, Catherine. We're all very proud of you. You'll do great wherever you go!
Lilypie Third Birthday tickers
Clicking this link will take you to my personal website.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Visit with Santa
"All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth," and a transformer and a Bakugan DS game.
Joscelyn loved the bear. She wasn't terribly excited about Santa, but she tollerated him long enough for a picture.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
This and That
We're really going to have to get better about asking people to take a picture of all of us.
Picking out the perfect pumpkin?....We didn't get this one! We agreed on one that could be carved.
Ready to go!
Kenten was supposed to blow bubbles for Joscelyn. When I went to check on them, he was flicking the wand at her head, she was wandering around oblivious. Once he saw me looking he immediately started blowing bubbles!Friday, October 22, 2010
Kenten's 6 year old picture
I took Kenten to get his 6 year old pictures today. We're only 5 months late!
Friday, October 15, 2010
Delivery!
The FedEx man made a delivery of 8 large boxes. When we got everything opened and sorted out, this is what we had! Thank you to everyone who helped us by making a purchase or collecting orders for us.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Fundraiser Update
I closed out The Pampered Chef Fundraiser today. Our commissionable sales were $2,559.70! The fundraiser will receive 15%, and I will receive 15% commission for a total of 30%. That's $767.91! That will make a pretty sizable dent in our cost of Kenten's surgery.
Thank you to everyone who made a purchase or other donation. We are so blessed to have so many wonderful friends and family.
Thank you to everyone who made a purchase or other donation. We are so blessed to have so many wonderful friends and family.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Rescheduled
I was able to talk to the scheduling lady at Children's Mercy Hospital. We have rescheduled Kenten's surgery for January 17th and 18th.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Fundraiser!
We have started taking orders for The Pampered Chef fundraiser! With my commission we will earn about 30% back from the total sales. We'd like to earn about $2000 of the cost of Kenten's surgery. That means we have to sell about $7000 in product. You can order by contacting me personally or you can order online at my website. You can click here to get there. Once at my website you should click on "shop online." Then under option one, enter Kenten Faust as the host's name. Be sure to spell it correctly or it won't get you there. I'm closing the show on October 2nd. Please have your orders in by October 1st. Choose to have your order shipped with the show if you are local. If you are not local, you will want to have your order shipped to you.
Kenten is still scheduled for surgery on December 28th. I'm still planning on talking to the hospital to see if we can change it for after the first of the year. Just in case he should decide to fall and break something, his deductible will already be met.
Please feel free to pass this along to everyone you think would like to help us out! If you have questions you can call me or send me an email.
Thank you for all your help, support, and prayers!
Kenten is still scheduled for surgery on December 28th. I'm still planning on talking to the hospital to see if we can change it for after the first of the year. Just in case he should decide to fall and break something, his deductible will already be met.
Please feel free to pass this along to everyone you think would like to help us out! If you have questions you can call me or send me an email.
Thank you for all your help, support, and prayers!
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Frustration
This last week I received in the mail my insurance packet. I put it to the side, not thinking anything of it. Tonight I decided to look through it. Normally the changes would not have bothered me. However, having in mind the future trip we are going to take to KC, I'm very frustrated with our new insurance coverage. Our plan that expires October 1 would have cost only $2000 as a maximum to us. With the new plan, we will have a maximum amount of $3000. I'm going to call the hospital tomorrow to find out what the total bill is expected to be so I can begin to look at the numbers and estimate our total.
I have begun to think of ways to pay for this bill. We don't have $3000 in the bank. We really can't afford any kind of a payment right now. So....I was thinking I would use my business to raise the money! After all, that is why I started my business, to help my family out with the extra expenses life throws our way. During the month of September, I will be collecting orders for Pampered Chef items. All the orders will go toward a Fundraiser show that I will turn in around October 2nd. Turned in as a Fundraiser show, we will earn anywhere from 15-20% commission for the fundraiser. I will also earn 15% commission personally. Both of those checks will go toward paying for Kenten's procedure. It seems like a lot, but my goal is a $6000 show! This would allow us to raise approximately $1800 to pay for Kenten's procedure. A show of $10,000 would almost pay for the whole thing. We're going to put some money aside on a medical flex card that I will sign up for through my employer. However, we can't put traveling expenses on a medical flex card. I'll put up more information regarding The Pampered Chef Fundraiser and how you can help when I get things completely figured out.
Check back regularly for updates. I'll try to get some pictures uploaded before school starts and everything gets crazy again!
I have begun to think of ways to pay for this bill. We don't have $3000 in the bank. We really can't afford any kind of a payment right now. So....I was thinking I would use my business to raise the money! After all, that is why I started my business, to help my family out with the extra expenses life throws our way. During the month of September, I will be collecting orders for Pampered Chef items. All the orders will go toward a Fundraiser show that I will turn in around October 2nd. Turned in as a Fundraiser show, we will earn anywhere from 15-20% commission for the fundraiser. I will also earn 15% commission personally. Both of those checks will go toward paying for Kenten's procedure. It seems like a lot, but my goal is a $6000 show! This would allow us to raise approximately $1800 to pay for Kenten's procedure. A show of $10,000 would almost pay for the whole thing. We're going to put some money aside on a medical flex card that I will sign up for through my employer. However, we can't put traveling expenses on a medical flex card. I'll put up more information regarding The Pampered Chef Fundraiser and how you can help when I get things completely figured out.
Check back regularly for updates. I'll try to get some pictures uploaded before school starts and everything gets crazy again!
Monday, July 26, 2010
Kenten 7-26-10
We received the letter today explaining Kenten's procedure. I thought I would share it. Several of you have been curious what it is that is going to be done.
During the Procedure:
The anesthesiologist will give medications through a mask or IV line, and your child will drift off to sleep. After your child is asleep, three to five long catheters are passed through the skin into blood vessels, usually in both groins and the right side of the neck, and gently guided into the heart. The heart's electrical system is then "mapped" by placing the catheters in specific locations in the heart and by pacing the heart. The "mapping" is the electrophysiology study. When an extra pathway or irritable site is located, low frequency radio waves are used to destroy the pathway or irritable site. This part of the procedure is the Radiofrequency Ablation. The ablation is done to cure your child of his or hear fast heart rate.
After the Procedure:
Your child will be on bed rest for five hours to allow the catheter insertion sites to hseal and heal. It will be important that your child not bear down, cough excessively, vomit, or push himself up in bed or stand. (This will be the tough part. If you know Kenten, you understand.) These actions can cause internal pressure that could cause the catheter sites to bleed. Your child will have a large, pressure bandage on each groin when he wakes up from the procedure. These will stay in place for five hours. They will be removed before your child is discharged. Your child will be able to read, watch TV or videos or play Nintendo while on bed rest. (I'm thinking new DS games or movies will be an excellent Christmas gift.) Most patients will be discharged to go home later the same day or in the early evening after the procedure. Should the procedure run late, or should there be any delay in routine recovery, he may need to stay overnight for observation.
Risks:
The risks of this procedure are very low. The risks of Cardiac Catheterization include: loss of circulation to a leg, blood clots (which could result in a stroke), bleeding, infection, perforation through a blood vessel or heart wall. The risks of an Electrophysiology Study include the risk of an abnormal rhythm occurring or an adverse reaction to antiarryhythmic medications. The risk of Radiofrequency Ablation includes possible damage to the normal conduction system. (Lots of things to pray about here.)
If you haven't been kept up on what all is going on, you can look back through my notes. Everything pertaining to these events are labeled with Kenten's name and a date. You'll want to go back to November 2009.
During the Procedure:
The anesthesiologist will give medications through a mask or IV line, and your child will drift off to sleep. After your child is asleep, three to five long catheters are passed through the skin into blood vessels, usually in both groins and the right side of the neck, and gently guided into the heart. The heart's electrical system is then "mapped" by placing the catheters in specific locations in the heart and by pacing the heart. The "mapping" is the electrophysiology study. When an extra pathway or irritable site is located, low frequency radio waves are used to destroy the pathway or irritable site. This part of the procedure is the Radiofrequency Ablation. The ablation is done to cure your child of his or hear fast heart rate.
After the Procedure:
Your child will be on bed rest for five hours to allow the catheter insertion sites to hseal and heal. It will be important that your child not bear down, cough excessively, vomit, or push himself up in bed or stand. (This will be the tough part. If you know Kenten, you understand.) These actions can cause internal pressure that could cause the catheter sites to bleed. Your child will have a large, pressure bandage on each groin when he wakes up from the procedure. These will stay in place for five hours. They will be removed before your child is discharged. Your child will be able to read, watch TV or videos or play Nintendo while on bed rest. (I'm thinking new DS games or movies will be an excellent Christmas gift.) Most patients will be discharged to go home later the same day or in the early evening after the procedure. Should the procedure run late, or should there be any delay in routine recovery, he may need to stay overnight for observation.
Risks:
The risks of this procedure are very low. The risks of Cardiac Catheterization include: loss of circulation to a leg, blood clots (which could result in a stroke), bleeding, infection, perforation through a blood vessel or heart wall. The risks of an Electrophysiology Study include the risk of an abnormal rhythm occurring or an adverse reaction to antiarryhythmic medications. The risk of Radiofrequency Ablation includes possible damage to the normal conduction system. (Lots of things to pray about here.)
If you haven't been kept up on what all is going on, you can look back through my notes. Everything pertaining to these events are labeled with Kenten's name and a date. You'll want to go back to November 2009.
Kenten 7-8-10
I FINALLY got to talk to the scheduling lady from Children's Mercy. I scheduled Kenten's procedure for Tuesday, December 28. We will leave Wichita Monday morning. He'll have preadmission testing at the Cardiac Clinic on Monday afternoon. He is having a Radio Frequency Ablation and an Electrophysiology Study.
They will map the electrical workings of his heart and hopefully correct what was causing the SVT episode that happened November 2009. Since then, he has not had another episode that we are aware of. The thought is to fix the cause of it now. If we wait until we see more episodes, it becomes a necessity. Right now the procedure is an elective procedure. Once it is done, we're not supposed to have to worry about it happening again. I'm sure we'll always worry though.
There is a chance that what caused the SVT will not be able to be fixed until he is older. We won't know for sure until the EP study is done.
We will be able to stay at the Ronald McDonald house while we are in KC. We've been talking about using this as an opportunity to have a small family vacation. I found out our insurance will cover 90% of the procedure, leaving us to pay the remaining 10%. The insurance will pay 100% once we've paid $2000. I am especially relieved by this. I was having nightmares that this would cost us $10,000 or even more.
We'll keep you posted as things get closer.
They will map the electrical workings of his heart and hopefully correct what was causing the SVT episode that happened November 2009. Since then, he has not had another episode that we are aware of. The thought is to fix the cause of it now. If we wait until we see more episodes, it becomes a necessity. Right now the procedure is an elective procedure. Once it is done, we're not supposed to have to worry about it happening again. I'm sure we'll always worry though.
There is a chance that what caused the SVT will not be able to be fixed until he is older. We won't know for sure until the EP study is done.
We will be able to stay at the Ronald McDonald house while we are in KC. We've been talking about using this as an opportunity to have a small family vacation. I found out our insurance will cover 90% of the procedure, leaving us to pay the remaining 10%. The insurance will pay 100% once we've paid $2000. I am especially relieved by this. I was having nightmares that this would cost us $10,000 or even more.
We'll keep you posted as things get closer.
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