Gracelyn's Story: Mason's Night of Celebration...

Our Story

Jeff and Andee were married in 2003. We were both born and raised in Utah. We have three sweet children. During a 23 week check up with our second child, the baby was diagnosed with Pulmonary Stenosis, a heart defect. She was born on December 16, 2009 when the doctors discovered she actually had Pulmonary Atresia, Tricuspid Atresia and Atrial Ectopic Tachycardia. After she was born she stayed at Primary Children's Medical Center for three weeks. During that time she had a BT Shunt and stent placed in her heart.

On June 4, 2010, Gracelyn received her Glenn shunt. During that time they removed her BT shunt and stent. She is doing great! The next step will be the Fontan procedure some time after she turns two.

We intend for this blog to keep family and friends aware of what's going on as our story progresses. We have learned so much and found strength from the blogs and websites of those that have previously gone through this that we want to share our story for those who will unfortunately face this as well, as there is currently no cure for Congenital Heart Disease. We are grateful for all the prayers on our behalf.

UPDATE: July 2013: Gracelyn was scheduled to have her Fontan this summer. Doctors feel like she is doing so great it can be postponed until next summer. We have recently contacted the Children's Hospital of Boston for second opinion. They believe they have an alternative to the Fontan. In September we will head to Boston to see what they can do for her.

UPDATE: April 2015- Gracelyn had her Fontan surgery on April 27, 2015. She flew through the procedure and recovery. It didn't happen immediately, but by day two she was a beautiful shade of pink.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Mason's Night of Celebration...

Wednesday night we attended a benifit for a little guy we have come to know through the blog world. He an his mom have been living in California since February waiting for a heart on the transplant list. He received his new heart on Easter. They hope to return home to Utah in the next few weeks. Even after insurance, the family has a lot of medical bills. Currently they are spending $1800 on meds each month. Friends decided to try and help them out by hosting "Mason's Night of Celebration." They held a raffle, auction and sold items donated. I decided since the heart suckers went like crazy at the last event we brought them to that we would try to sell some and earn money for Mason. I got the heart stand out and thought it would be sufficient to fill it. It holds about 60.

A friend that was helping me decided we needed more. The day of the auction she called me over and said she had made some more. This is what I found...

She had make 140 more! Wow! Thanks Kathryn! We ended up selling well over half. We gave the rest the Mason's siblings. They came up with the idea to take them around their neighborhood and sell them. We loved the idea.

While we were there we met up with some friends and made some new ones during the night. The cute little blond girl on the right just went through a transplant with her 2.5 year old little girl. They were at the hospital during Grace's first surgery. She was on they transplant list for only four days before getting a heart and stayed in the hospital for only 11 after she received it. Her story gave me a lot of hope. Mindi on the right has a cute little girl who is at the same place in the process as Grace.

Paul Cardall played and spoke as well as a few others and Angie Larson from Good Things Utah was the emcee.

The only item we bid on happened to be donated by Mason's dad's company. We won it! We spent the end of the evening talking with him. What an amazing family! You can read more about Mason or donate to his fund at miraclemason.blogspot.com.

We truly had a great night FILLED with the spirit of giving!