Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Bernice: "Bringing Victory"

Ah, birthday season. A reminder always that it's a privilege to be able to celebrate. Bernie blew out her candles by herself for the first time. It's a day that could have so easily and realistically been one for a visit to a cemetery and to pour through pages of pictures. But no!! The trials and triumphs of the last 4 years are certainly mesmerizing yet always worth celebrating. She is living proof of so many incredible truths: Face your fears, have faith, love unconditionally, embrace your support system, and know that there is abundant joy out there to discover along this road you never intended.



We never gave much thought to the meaning of her name before she was born, but WOW, does it ever fit: "Bringing Victory".  Almost to an eerie extent. Especially as I look at her next to those words "Extraordinary Victories" as she greeted her billboard at the hospital yesterday. "It's ME!" she exclaimed as she pointed to the larger than life 2-dimensional version of herself plastered on the wall. She tried walking down the hall past it, but kept her eyes on the wall as she propelled forward.


Which brings us to our appointment yesterday. Not exactly the way we wanted to spend our time, but we did it with a smile (for the most part).
















Bernie had a sedated echo (let's hear it for nasal versed!) and the images and information we were able to get of her heart function were about the same.

As long as Bernie does not demonstrate symptoms of heart failure (loss of appetite, abnormal fatigue and pale/bluish coloring) we are going to wait on any surgical intervention. Victory! We will do another echo in the spring to reevaluate. As Dr. Gajarski was careful to warn, "when we are going, we're going big." I really don't expect anything else. That's just how Bernie operates. And we aim for victory.


 I like to think of her proven motto as "Go big AND go home." Why think it's an option to do one or the other? If Bernie can keep the bugs away from her this winter, we may not have the pleasure of reenacting this banner until the spring! We hope you enjoy many unexpected victories until our next update. Thanks for your love and support. It should be a lot easier now to leave a comment on this blog if you wish to do so. Thank you!!

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