Miriam’s next VEPTR expansion is scheduled for Dec. 16. We were originally thinking it would wait until January, but she has been showing increasing discomfort and her devices started to appear more prominent under her skin in mid-November. This is in part because she has been growing (hooray!), and the devices may just be too small for her at their current setting. However, based on her x-rays her doctor is concerned that the VEPTR on her side may have eroded the bottom rib where it is attached. They won’t be able to see for sure until she is in surgery. If this is the case, they will need to attach the device to a different rib, which would likely be higher up in her chest. This would mean removing the current VEPTR (leaving the upper connector in place) and replacing it with a shorter one. This would mean a bigger incision and more recovery time (possibly two nights in the hospital). Please pray again for wisdom for her doctors and nurses, good pain management, and protection from infection or injury.

Just for fun, here are some recent pictures. She got a big hair cut just before Halloween. She was Little Red Riding Hood, and her sisters were Cinderella and Tinkerbell.

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