Mason Gregory Garka

Hi everyone, Well, this is it. Kelsey and I have been preparing ourselves the best we can for Mason's first surgery. He will head to the operating room tomorrow sometime around 7:00-7:30am. Many prayers have been said over the past several months by us and by all of you. Thank you so much for the outpouring of support. Kelsey and I are confident that tomorrow will soon pass and it won't be long before we are wiping mud off his clothes, putting him in timeout, or working with him on his homework. Tomorrow is just the first step in a relatively short process compared to the rest of his life. The blood clot in his leg did not get much better so it is something his body will have to adapt to. His body will adjust to the clot and form additional vessels for blood to flow back up to the heart (isn't God incredible?). So, if you're wondering if there is a chance the clot could break and cause issues we have been assured that that typically only occurs in adults....

Hi Friends, Mason has been doing pretty good the last couple days. He seems to be taking shape right before our eyes. It's so funny to see how big he looks compared to the other babies. That should fair him well when it comes time for surgery. Please pray for a blood clot to clear that has formed in his leg. This in not uncommon, however it would obviously be nice to get it taken care of sooner rather than later. They have put him on some additional medication to break up the clot. The doctors are going to do an ultrasound on Sunday to see if the medication is having an effect. As of right now the surgery is scheduled for this Tuesday, 7/1. If the clot does not get better or takes longer than they would like to clear it could postpone the surgery. Obviously, Kelsey and I don't want this surgery to take place, but we know it is inevitable so additional delays make things pretty tough on us emotionally. We know there are going to be bumps in the road as we progres...

Friends, Not a whole lot of new information to share, which is I guess an update in itself. The team of cariologists and surgeons were supposed to have a conference this morning to determine a gameplan for Mason and have a pretty solid date for surgery. The surgeons were not available to meet due to an immediate heart transplant that had to take place. Obviously this is understandable, our prayers go out to the child that needed the transplant as well as to his/her family. We also know that in order to get a heart another child had to pass away so our prayers are with that family as well. The conference has been rescheduled for Wednesday morning, hopefully we'll get some news as to when Mason's surgery will take place. Kelsey was discharged from the hospital today and is feeling pretty good. She's obviously very sore after 72 hours of labor but is holding up well. We have been able to see Mason everyday. We usually spend a couple hours at a time staring at him, ...

Friends, Let me start out by saying that I have always had tremendous respect for my wife, but the last 72 hours has taken it to a whole new level. Kelsey has gone thru and is still going through some of the most intense pain I could ever imagine. So to all you women out there, God Bless you because the men in this world have it pretty easy when it comes to making babies. Mason is doing great! He was born June 20th at 8:27pm, 9.45lbs and 21.5" long. God certainly answered prayers making Mason a large baby in order to cope with the surgeries ahead. Kelsey did such an incredible job trying to get Mason out, but the size of him and the position he was in was causing a great amount of pain for Kelsey to endure. She fought through it for 3.5 hours but it was obvious we were going to have to go an alternate route. We elected to have a c-section, which Kelsey handled very well. About 45 minutes later Mason was born and being stablized. I was not able to be in the room when he...

Okay, so we went to the hospital last night and spent nearly seven hours preparing for labor, most of which was sitting around watching America's Got Talent. Apparently labor and delivery here at UW was extremely busy last night, so needless to say our stay was quite short. Since Kelsey's induction had not started yet the doctor asked if we "would rather sleep in our own bed." In other words, we would like to use your room for somebody who is actually in active labor. So, the hospital offered to set us up in one of their apartments because we were to come back at 7am. It didn't make much sense to us to drive all the way to Stanwood just to turn around and come back during rush hour 5 hours later. We packed our things and headed off to the apartment, boy was she a beauty. Aside from the sirens every 15 minutes, the mysterious stains all over the carpet, and the remote control that only work a foot from the TV, it was a great place. We didn't care, howeve...

Hello Everyone!! Well, the day has finally come. Kelsey and I are scheduled to go to UW tomorrow (Monday, 6/16) for induction. It is truly a blessing that Mason made it this far into the pregnancy. His lungs and other organs should be well developed and ready to tackle anything that comes his way. We do not know when exactly we'll be going into the hospital, but we should be getting a call in the morning. I know it has been awhile since this website has been updated, but like the old saying goes...no news is good news. Since our "Big Scare" last month things have been smooth sailing. They put Kelsey on bed rest (if you want to call it that) and it drastically improved her health. The doctors at Children's (Dr. Holmgeren inparticular) have been so wonderful to deal with. They have really helped ease the ups and downs we have gone through over the past several months. The updates to this blog will be more frequent now that changes will be more frequent. Please...