The Foxden

We apologise for not keeping you up to date on the news, but we've been kept
rather busy with Alexander. We wanted to give you a short update on his medical
history and current status.

Shortly after he was born, Alex's condition deteriorated significantly. The
doctors opened the closed
pulmonary valve using a catheter, but this did not have the effect they wanted. We
were not aware at the time, but the other valve on the right side (tricuspid) was
not competent either, and blood frequently flowed backwards through the right
side of the heart, stealing blood away from the lungs. Alexander was in a very
grave condition during this time, and was far too critical to travel to
California for the much needed shunt operation. We came close to losing him
several times. Kathy and Alan stayed by his bedside every day, frequently
spending nights at the hospital as well.

The medical team used an occlusion device, delivered via a catheter, to
re-close the pulmonary valve, and Alex's condition started to improve. At
four-and-a-half weeks of age, we were finally ready for the central shunt procedure.

We went to UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco, and the shunt
surgery went without a hitch. One difficulty was that they had to remove the
occlusion device, making this an open-heart surgery.

At One-and-a-half months of age, Alex was finally ready to go home with us.
What a strange feeling it was to finally have full responsibility of this
little life that had caused so many doctors so much agony! Alex still had some
problems (including a narrowing of the pulmonary artery and collapsed
capillaries in the right lung from lack of blood flow), so he had to remain on
oxygen. We didn't let the oxygen tanks stop us, however. We continued doing
the same things we did before we had Alex, and of course we brought him along
with us.

At 5 months, Alex had his second big surgery at Seattle Children's
Hospital. By now, Seattle had the infant cardiac surgeon required for such
an operation (actually Seattle now has 2, and they both attended to
Alex during his surgery). He had a Glenn procedure, along with some other procedures (correcting a
narrowing of the pumonary artery and removing the wall between the atria of
the heart) that made it a second open-heart surgery. Alex came out with flying
colors. Alex had to remain on oxygen for a few more weeks after getting out of
the hopsital, but he's off of oxygen now. He is doing very well and we could
not be happier.

We want to thank all of you who have given your prayers and support through
these difficult times. We appreciate the difference you have made in helping
us get through these difficult times. We have only one more surgery to go -
the Fontan procedure will take place when Alex is between 3 and
6 years of age, and will be considered very low risk given his current healthy
condition.