So much has been going on with Katja lately that it’s made updates difficult. She’s been like an immune compromised sponge soaking up every bug or virus she’s exposed to. It’s literally been one thing after another. Battering her poor overwhelmed body and immune system for weeks. After multiple rounds of upper respiratory illness, she had a GI bug that undid all the hard work of her 5lbs weight gain.

Heading into the PNW “summer” and mild, warmer weather has definitely calmed things down. We’ve finally put back on those 5lbs plus another. She’s showing a lot of signs that time is running out.

Which brings us to today’s Echo. We are 6 weeks from those Unicorn dates for surgery and her team at Seattle decided a quick check was in order after all the illness.

This photo illustrates exactly what can’t be put into words. A heart that is enlarged and struggling. Her LV is enormous compared to the rest of her heart. Luckily it’s only slightly worse than the end of February. Her function is stable and that’s a great thing.

She had exactly the same issues 5 years ago and we were so lucky that her heart bounced back to normal size within a few months. I’m really hoping that happens again.

For now it’s full steam ahead on planning, packing and preparing for Boston. Grandma (my Mom) will be here next week to help with all the chaos. We are super lucky she’s able to help us the next 2.5 months because we are already worn thin.

Katja’s expressing more awareness of what’s to come. Her anxiety is running high these days and I’m very worried Boston will have their hands full dealing with her having a mega panic attack over everything. She knows this is best but of course the fear of the “unknown” is always scary. This brave little girl has been through more in her almost 8 years of life than most 80 year olds .