Neela Lu Waddell was born June 27, 2009 to join her four brothers and two sisters. Yes we have a family of seven kids. Bart and I (Monica) were married August 22, 1998... when we were married that day we would have probably fallen over if someone were to tell us that we'd have seven kids. Bart and I are a great team, always have been. We spent and still spend all of our time together, although now we have seven people between us that fight for that time, but we do the best we can. We were Christians are whole life but not like we have been the last two years. We live for God and let not anything get in the way of that. We instill what we've learned about God and our faith into our children the last few years, especially our medical scares with Neela. She was born with a cataract on her right eye and had surgery to remove it when she was three weeks of age. Since then she has worn a contact lens in that eye to serve as the lens they extracted due to the cataract covering the whole lens. At first it was a large hurdle to try and pry a newborn baby girl's eye wide open and then to slip a small contact lens as big as a pea, (I'm not kiddin you) into her eye. I would pray and pray everytime I would go to try and put it in or take it out, for most of the time it worked quite well. Neela has a regular patching schedule everyday that she follows for hopes that her "bad" eye will improve sight in it. She is still at risk for glaucoma, retinal detachment and scar tissue easing into the way of her sight that is developing everyday. So as far as her eye, that is behind us and have been granted strength and serenity to deal with this obstacle. Our next step of faith was when Neela was four months old Bart noticed a little bump behind and below her right ear. I then the next morning took her to our family doctor to see if he knew what it was. To my understanding it was just a "lymph node" and he told me not to worrry. So a few months went by, bump still continued to stay and grow in size gradually. Took her back to the doctor's office the second time and they noticed it was very suspicious and that they have seen like it in their 25 years of practice. Let me tell ya I think my heart could have jumped out of my chest and started beating by itself on the table. I was thinking the worst... CANCER. Ughhh finally we took Neela back to her old stomping grounds with her eye, University of Iowa Hospitals. The ENT clinic checked her out and told me that they thought it was a Lymphatic Malformation, but couldn't be certain until an MRI was done. We waited about a month to get the MRI done, in that time we started to reach onto God's hand a little each day... we would pray for her at church, bible study and at home for an answer that wasn't cancer. That day arrived of the MRI and sure enough it was a Lymphatic Malformation... doctor told me she has macrocysts and microcysts. The macrocysts can be treated with injections of the med Ok-432 which would sclerose the biggest cysts and shrink them down like they were not even there to begin with. However, these injections are risky due to them causing major swelling and pain to that neck area. As far as the microcysts, they will either need to be surgically removed or another plan will be prayed about before that happens, due to the cysts wanting to "grow" back. The malformation is intertwined with her carotid nerve and artery so doctors are thinking that surgery would be very risky due to possibly hitting the nerve, which means she would lose all function of the right side of her face. Neela did pretty well since that last visit, up until she was about 8 months old and acquired a severe bacterial infection in her macrocyst in her neck. She ran a very high temp and her neck swelled the size of an orange. She was miserable and in a lot of pain, I pray everyday that she or us won't go through that again, or for at least quite some time. We can always tell when Neela is getting sick because her malformation gets quite large. Then we know we need to start her on antibiotics or at least get her to be seen by a doctor. We will see Neela's doctor that will take her on this summer on May 10. We are anxious to hear what his plan for Neela is this summer, I know possibly starting with another MRI and starting the injections as early as June, right about the time when she is one. This year has gone by so quicky with all our chaotic household of having seven kids and not to mention appointments for her eye and now for her LMs. Bart and I are taking all of this in stride with eachother and making sure our kids know they are all loved very much, even though a lot of our attention and worries are over Neela as of right now. We know God has his mighty hand on our family especially Neela with all of these situations that arise. We know that we are loved by HIm... forgiven by Him.... lead by Himm.... and we trust every decision in Him... We or I should just say "I" have a lot of anxiety about Neela as of right now, just starting this journey, because of the unknown coming towards our way. I say "I" because Bart is very strong willed and relys on our faith sometimes more than I do. I know that both of us are sometimes like wandering "sheep" with our faith... I can feel our Lord's mighty grip on us reeling us both back into His word and plan of direction for us. I remain faithful and trusting the God is gonna take care of Neela as far as granting her doctors with wisdom in providing the best possible treatments for Neela's case. I pray everynight for all of my children to go into the right direction with being an avid Christian like Bart and I... I sometimes am overwhelmed with Neela's condtion right now.. the other night I was praying over her crib at 2 am putting my hand on her chest, praying ( and sobbing and sobbing) that the Lord will either heal Neela or grant her strength to deal with this condition. I think I must have had a few large tears drop on her face because she started to stir a little towards the end of my prayer.. Oppss:) Please pray for Neela's upcoming appointment in May that it will go smoothly and the doctors know exactly where to start with her. Please pray for the families that are everyday dealing with a child with this condition that is not so known much about, since it is so rare. I pray that these families have strength and know that God has a plan for each one of these children being affected by this. I want to thank Bart, my best friend, for instilling me with strength... I couldn't and wouldn't want to start this journey with anyone but you... He has put us in charge of these seven beautiful blessings to raise and teach them to the best of our abilities. We will conquer this journey with Neela, together, as our faith continues to grow larger everyday. Thank you also to our supportive family and friends.... you have given us the courage that we are the parents that can handle all of these obstacles with all our children... God Bless!
