1 year

Kirby "Faith" Bradley

On this day 1 year ago, our sweet Kirby went to be with Jesus. We never expected this day would come and our faith was stronger than ever that her healing was coming. Since that day, we have had moments where our faith was strong, weak, and waivering.  The stories of how Kirby has in turn changed the lives of so many has been our strength in knowing God's plan though this journey. Her smile was and is our strength on days of weakness and her fighting spirit infectious to so many.

Since November 11th, we have endured nights and days of tears and sorrow, questioning why, hope in knowing her journey was not void of changing lives, confusion of how we were to move on, how to keep her memories alive forever. Moments where we were angry, frustrated and weak. The roller coaster of emotions continued to flood us just as they did during the 7 months she was with us. Over the past few months, we have been able to experience a greater sense of peace in knowing we will never have all the answers as long as we are here on this earth. Her life changed so many, and ultimately that is what matters most. Her life has changed our life forever and for that I am truly grateful.

As we near the time of welcoming our second child in early December, Joshua Brock Bradley, we are filled with joy in knowing he is being carefully watched over by our precious angel Kirby Faith. Brock will forever know that he has an angel by his side.....that his sister will be with him always. We look forward to the day we all meet as a family in heaven. We know Gods plan is perfect and Brock's life will continue to help restore and heal our hearts.

As I sit here today with continuous tears pouring down my face with every text message, Facebook post, message, etc. I am filled with joy in how the love of friends and family have pulled us through. To our friends and family, those we know and those we have never met, who have continuously supported us when we were grumpy, sad, happy, up or down, we say Thank You from the bottom of our hearts. You will never know how you have given us strength at just the right moment. My prayer today is that our lives and relationship with God will only grow stronger through the journey of "Faith" that we have endured. So today, as we reflect on the days we had with Kirby and the time since her passing, our hearts are heavy, yet hopeful and full in knowing our hope is in the Lord. Our "Faith" is forever in Him.

Bump part 2

Since the last update, there have been some changes. After a closer look at Kirby's resent echos and because of the increased swelling, they became more concerned about the valve. They decided to look closer and some comparisons and it looks like there is a clot in a vein going into her Glen (her second stage surgery) as well as some possible clotting causing the valve to not open as effectively. So...they are giving an 8 hour drip through iv of a clot dissolving med. This should take care of the clot and the valve issue so blood can flow more freely. The risk of this med is the dissolving of clots that are good clots...like where an iv line was removed or surgical incisions, etc. and bleeding risks. We know God is in complete control and has her right in His hands. Continue to join us in prayer.

Update

Just a quick update with what we know so far. Kirby is still on the vent and is pretty swollen. She has begun to "pee" a little more so our prayer is that the swelling begins to decrease. They echoed the valve 2 different ways and did an xray under fluoroscopy. The valve looks good and does not seem to causing any problems. So...they decided to start running tests including blood, urine, and sputum. It takes a while for the cultures to grow but it looks like something is showing up in the urine. They have already started antibiotics and steroids to help. They have thrown out UTI and Spesis. So, right now we are just waiting and praying. Thank you Lord that Kirby is healed in Jesus name. Continue to pray for "pee", for all her organs to function just as they are designed to funtion, the swelling to decrease, fluid in her lungs to leave, and for strength in her little body.

Bump

Kirby has had several really good days. The sedation meds were taken off Monday night and yesterday Kirby was awake all day. She was alert and comfortable. Today, as the day went on, Kirby's breathing seemed to get progressively more labored and she was very sleepy and difficult to wake up. This progressed to a point that the drs. needed to do more to look into what was going on. After several breathing treatments and some therapy, they decided to place the vent back in. Her co2 levels were really high due to ineffective breaths and causing her to be very sleepy and her breathing to be dificult. They are looking at her valve to see if it opening effectively under fluoroscopy as I type. They had to turn her blood thinner off yesterday in order to pull some lines, and they are concerned that a clot could have formed in the valve during that time. If this is the case, they will give some meds to help desolve the clot. This can be the cause of some of her complications today with breathing. Continue to pray for complete and total healing of Kirby's body. My God is able!

Slow and Steady

Kirby has had a good steady weekend. They have been slowly working on weaning meds and weaning her vapotherm. She has been sleeping most of the time but the rest is good for her. They will be continuing to work on meds and getting some lines out over the next few days. Keep praying for healing and strength for her body.

Big Day!

Kirby has had a big day today! They were finally able to take out the ventilator this morning! YAY! She is so relieved and is doing great. The plan was to take it out 2 days ago but her blood gases weren't reflecting that she was not ready and had slowly gone down hill, so she had to wait until today. We prayed hard last night that her gases would improve and God intervened....they began to come up at her 9:00 blood draw. We have also been praying hard for the pacing of her heart/heart rhythm and they turned off the pace maker this morning and she is doing great! I can't begin to express how truly grateful we are for Kirby's life. We learn more each day of how sick she was and how little hope they had for her these last few weeks. She has truly pulled through some tough times only because of the prayers and our trust in Him. We know and continue to stand on God's promised of healing! Thank you Lord that Kirby is healed!

A New Week

Kirby has had a good stable weekend. She has continued to make progress and gets stronger each day. They were able to close her chest on Saturday with no complications and she tolerated it well. They have begun to feed her a small amount of food to help her get stronger and ready for getting the ventilator out. They are doing CPAP trials (turning off of the ventilator) today and hopefully take the ventilator out tomorrow. We had a little hiccup yesterday with the pacing and rhythm of her heart. They had to turn the temporary pacemaker back on bc of some heart rhythm issues, but they don't seem too worried about it right now. They think it will work itself out bc of her response when they turn it off. Continue to pray for miraculous healing and for us to be home for the holidays.

*I have been meaning to say that I do not spell/grammar check bc I am hurrying to type this so I apologize for my mistakes on here. :)