happy easter to all!

the local namibian Easter bunny will find himself confronted with very different conditions this year: firstly it will have to hide the eggs in the trees wrapped in watertight packaging and use a boat to come and hide them! we have passed the 1200 mm watermark, the highest ever recorded rainfall in history. living in a semi-dessert environment makes us appreciate every drop of water, but it is enough now. our farm animals are suffering from various rain-associated diseases and it must be terrible for them to be outside in this constant rain. the other condition that the easter bunny will have to get used to is Cara....she looks so different now and he might not recognise her anymore. her complexion has changed, her health and energy levels. we have a completely changed child now. we are very humbled to be able to witness this miracle transformation first hand. from her 5 kgs lost she has regained 3, so we have 2 more to go and beyond when the muscle build up through more exercise will kick in. we are 11 weeks post-op now and are scheduled for another check-up with the pediatric cardiologist next week. the 20 cm long chest scar is healing very nicely and the last Dermabond piece has just come off. she still coughs and we really hope that she process of lung expansion will be over soon and that it is not something else causing it.
Dana and family....Cara still sleeps with her red hearted dog pillow you brought her to hospital. she loves it! her 2 cats Tipsy and Tapsy get a lot of attention and she is sooo happy to be back and able to cuddle with them. Alec is getting used to the idea of having a normal sibling relationship and that his sister is a lot more active now. she has been at school for the past 5 weeks and 4 of them in boarding school and is coping very well. she is now able to walk over the school bridge without any assistance at the same pace her classmates are walking. such an achievement for her! previously somebody had to walk her across the streets through traffic and that was always risky and tiring for her. she has missed more than 2 months of school and has still managed to bring home  86 % in her maths test where the class average was 76 %. with the other subjects the teachers are helping her and we are very grateful for their support and extra efforts. so what more can we tell you? we as parents are extremely relieved that we have made the right choice for Cara with Dr. Hanley and his team. they have advised us that she will need another open heart surgery in a couple of years to bring the homograft to adult size, but that will be relatively minor compared to what she has been through. the big operation on 2 february 2011 would not have been possible without the tremendous support and response received in various forms from all over the world for which we thank you all from the bottom of our hearts. it feels to us as if we also got a second life now, we are able to plan for the future and have so much more energy and hope for years to come. Life is beautiful.....

weekly update

Good morning to all. herewith the weekly update, there is not enough happening to justify a daily blog. Cara is about to finish her first week of school and it went ok, also it was a short week with independence day, a swimming gala on thursday and the teachers generally not giving her too much homework so that she can adjust to the pace once again. next week she will be able to return to boarding school and she is very much looking forward to being able to spend time with her roommates. Her schoolbag still needs to be carried by someone else as it is too much weight on the sternum, and she is not allowed to participate in sport yet, but other than that she should be able to cope with the weekly school routine. we had another check-up with the cardiothrorasic surgeon on tuesday and her lungs are clear, so the effusion will not come back and she is allowed to follow a NORMAL diet. yipee!!! at last!!! so we had to organise a pizza for her, smoked viennas, and just tasty, fat containing food for her and she is eating lots. she does suffer from allergies right now and is on medication and that has led to a persistent dry cough which we struggle to contain, also at night now. she is also very demanding and she needs skills to cope with the trauma and the situation in general. time will heal lots of things too...
we have crossed the 1000 mm rainmark here on the farm and managed to have more vehicles stuck in the field, including the cattle truck on our farm entrance road. what a year, this must certainly be the record year rainwise in the history on this farm. it is about to start raining again....
we are trying to post a current picture of the madam ( another nickname for bobbies ) on the blog but currently she does not want to be on a camera. we wish you all a wonderful weekend!

another week past op

hello to everybody. cannot believe how fast the week has gone past! we are basically 6 weeks past-op now and according to the medical experts, by now the immune system should not be supressed anymore and she should become a lot better. we had a small setback last week Friday in the form of a stomach virus which made her throw up but Rita soon had this one sorted out! so from a very low weight of 28.8 kg we have her back on 30.3 kg and have to get her back to her pre-op weight of 34 kg and then beyond that as she is severely undernourished right now and has been previously. but everybody who knows her can testify that she has had a very healthy appetite and eats big portions. so mama/ me/ moi can testify that long term patients are very difficult and she is still subdued, quiet and very demanding and edgy, but this is all due to the healing process. the sternum is fully healed by now and she will be able to return to school after the independence weekend. somebody will have to carry her schoolbag for her in the first couple of weeks as that is still to heavy for her chest. in a couple of weeks time she will probably also be able to return to her boarding school and her group of friends, whom she misses a  lot. she dreams a lot too, all part of the process to get rid and work off the trauma. for now we keep her busy with cooking, her cats and toys. we have over 930 mms of rain since the start of the rainy season and all damms are still overflowing. like our neighbours says, at least this year we do not have to worry about cattle standing without water in the field somewhere. our favourite, brand new hobby is retrieving stuck landcruisers, trailers and tractors out of the farm ( they get stuck on trackroads! ) and if we do not have our own to pull out we assist the neighbours as they seem to have taken to the same hobby. we have also created a new work outfit...black rubber boots and yellow raincoats...very fashionable. have a great week and best regards from us all here on Progress!

farmroutine

hello to all the fans! we have been to the local peadiatric cardiologist dr. chris hugo-hamman last week and had chest x-rays done, echo etc and he is very happy with her progress and has taken her off some medications and also thinks the chyle's effusion has healed ( thanks to orgon and rita ) but says we should for safety sake just stick to the diet for another week and then slowly start re-introducing. the only medication she is on now is the diuretic and the fluid restriction is also a thing of the past. cara is very thin though due to a lack of muscles and restricted eating choices, but will hopefully come back to her old weight soon. she has lost about 4 kgs and has picked up only half a kilo so far.
we are almost over the jetlag, it really hit us this time after so long in the states.....
the cats tipsy and tapsy are being trained by cara to become circus participants...she spends hours with them and has started knitting inbetween the movies ( she loves those and soon there will be no more movies left she has not seen.....she just watched beethoven and absolutely loved it )
today it has been raining non-stop and everyting is wet, wet, wet. we had over 800 mm rain by now, our average is 350 mm. have a good evening!

Cara is back home!!!

Cara and Sonja have arrived home yesterday morning with a two hour delay from Frankfurt and were greeted by their families. Cara was very tired but delighted to be home and see her father, Alec and her cats.
They are now on the farm and continuing the long road to full recovery. We will continue to keep you posted on Cara's recovery. The new photo on the blog was taken on the day when the two left the states for home.

frankfurt

frankfurt is actually not cold and cara is missing out on her snow......yes we have landed in deutschland and as cara was tired we went to the sheraton for some napping time. we are now back at the airport enduring a 2 hour delay because of some airline part that is not here yet for air namibia and will hopefully be on our way shortly. one thing i never told you all about is how kerri and claus roggensack managed to cara back to eat food by ordering lean biltong ( yes the real african stuff, not american beef jerky) from somewhere in the midwest over the internet and getting stuck in the snow and having it personally delivered by kerri.......that was extraordinary and cara gets her measured 1 to 2 ounces every day and is absolutely delighted.
 thanks so much you 2!

we are leaving....

hi all, i am very happy to report that we are about to board the lufthansa plane to frankfurt. we are at the beautiful san fransisco aiport now and checked in after we have said good bye to a whole lot of people and having had a surprise dinner at flemings with diana and barry last night. barry kindly dropped us off at the airpot and cara in in good spirits and very happy to be on her way home. so we will try and send you an update from cold frankfurt, if not then hopefully when back in namibia. take care and once again thanks for all the support, we would have not been able to go through this without knowing you are all with us all over the world!