Alaina and Family

**Update** 

Surgery week! She's slowly making progress. She's still in Cardiac ICU for the next couple of days and then she will go back to the NICU. She'll be there for the next few weeks atleast if not longer depending on how that right ventricle does. I cannot thank everyone enough for your time, your thoughts, prayers and donations. I am so grateful to all of you!!

Hello! I'm Jennifer Holloway and this is Alaina! She's 2 months old and we are living in the NICU at Cooks Children's Medical Center in Ft. Worth, Texas. She was born with a complete Atrial Ventricular Septal Defect (AVSD). In easy terms, she is missing the cross that separates all 4 chambers of her heart. We are waiting for heart surgery to attempt a repair but she's still a little too small and young for the surgery to be a success. The surgery she has to have done has become complicated due to her right ventricle is smaller than her left and surgeons are unsure if her right ventricle can withstand the blood pressure going to her lungs. She has to be on high flow oxygen to keep her oxygen saturation at a healthy level for her and to give her oxygen support when she's being active. We've had a lot of issues with her bottle feeding due to her oxygen levels dropping as well. She also has Down Syndrome with which she has a high palate which has also led to bottle feeding issues. She currently has an NG tube which she's had since birth receive all her food by. She's on multiple diuretics to help keep the extra fluid off her body that comes with her AVSD, heart murmur and CHF. The doctors are unsure of whether or not she will be able to come home before surgery, however, the general consensus is that we will be here for awhile longer. I also have a 14 year old at home that has been without me for almost 2 months. We live in Lubbock, Texas so I have been traveling back and forth to try to be there for both my girls, 313 miles one way. Between travel costs and supporting not only myself at the hospital but also supporting my 14 yr old and household, finances have been stretched to about depletion. I'm looking into other resources and have put in applications for assistance but some of them will take months for approval if approved at all. I know this year has been rough on all of us, but anything will help. I am just trying to make sure that my daughter at home has everything she needs and her home is a safe, stable place for her and that I can also be at the hospital for Alaina. We are beyond grateful for any help we receive and I thank each and every one of you who has taken the time to read our story.