A new beginning...

So much has happened since we last wrote... first of all, i finally finished beauty college and started working at Mane Street Salon! and Mike is still faithfully working for the plasma center in Rexburg. On September 1st we celebrated Chance's first birthday!! Its hard to believe that he is already a year old... that day held a huge mix of emotions for us. Not only was our Angel turning one but we had also learned that he was to be a big brother that next spring as well! As we anxiously await the arrival of our next child, the thoughts and memories of Chance are constantly in our minds... praying that it be the Lord's will that all go well with this next pregnancy.

Our Little Angel

Our sweet little angel, Chance James Prince, son of Michael and Michelle Watts Prince, was called home by his Heavenly Father on Wednesday, January 9, 2008, at the Primary Children’s Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. Chance was 4 months old. He was born on Sept. 1, 2007 at the University of Utah Medical Center.
Chance passed from being our angel of light in this life to his new role as a guardian and beacon for his family in the eternities to come. Chance gave us all reason to hope and to be able to witness the miracles that happen by faith and by modern medical procedures.
His family would like to thank all of the medical personnel at EIRMC in Idaho Falls, the U of U Medical Center, and especially the doctors, nurses and staff of Primary Children’s Medical Center who were angels by his side day and night.
Chance is survived by his parents; his grandparents, Jim and Marsha Prince and Bruce and Kerry Watts; great-grandparents, Marvin and Glenna Jorgensen, Shirley Hart and Theris Watts; and many loving aunts, uncles, and cousins.Michael and Michelle will be available to meet with family and friends on Monday night, Jan. 14, from 7-8 p.m. at the Wood Funeral Home East Side, 963 South Ammon Road, Idaho Falls. A viewing will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 15, from 10:00 a.m. until 10:45 a.m. at the same location with the funeral services following at 11:00 a.m. The burial will be in the Ammon Cemetery, Ammon, Idaho. In lieu of flowers, friends may contribute to the following account: Beehive Federal Credit Union, Michael and Michelle Prince, Chance02. Condolences may be sent to the family online at www.woodfuneralhome.com

CHANCE JAMES PRINCE
September 1st 2007, at approximately 8:45pm Chance James Prince came into this world… and our lives were forever changed. Weighing only 1lb 11oz at birth and no longer than 12 inches, he was already larger than life.
But this was just the start of his earthly mission, he was a chosen son of Our Heavenly Father, who sent him here to accomplish something great. What this mission was we had no idea at the time, and we may never know exactly what it was that he was sent here to do. But our lives have all been touched in some way by him. He was able to accomplish, and experience more in four months than most of us do in a full lifetime.
Every day with Chance was something new… nothing was what you would call ordinary. Many of his nurses could always expect him to throw them a bit of a curve ball at some point during the day. Whether it was needing blood, or his chest tubes not draining right, or his oxygen needs going up and down every time they touched him, and many other little things he did, he always had them on their toes, some days more than others. And just when we thought that we were getting on top of things he would give us something else to overcome. It all goes to show that what goes around comes around, as it is said and we all know that Mike was such a perfect and innocent little boy never causing anybody any grief, so it must have been Michelle’s fault that he was always up to something, when he was quiet and it seemed like nothing was going on he was just trying to find something else to do like seeing how fast his dad would lose all his hair or how many nurses he could get to fight over him. They just never knew what he would do next.
Chance had his first surgery on the 24th of September; this was to close a vessel off near his heart, what a success. His next was just a couple days later to find out what was wrong with his stomach they found that he had a perforated bowel, it was cleaned out and they had to leave him open till it started to shrink and he got bigger and stronger. He had surgery once a week for the next two weeks just to clean the wound out and to change the bandage. Then they moved the ends of the perforation out and put a patch on his stomach, and didn’t do surgery for a couple weeks. He had a few complications following these surgeries, large amounts of swelling, infections fluid on his chest. Finally they were able to go in and fix his bowel and the cyst that had formed was gone what a miracle. But he was still plagued by swelling and fluid in his chest so they couldn’t finish closing him up. But through all of this he kept fighting and overcoming each obstacle as it came at him. When it seemed that all was lost and he could not finish Michelle would be there whispering in his ear that she loved him, and Mike was there to bless him and tell him it was ok. Many family and Friends were praying for him, and telling him that he was loved and wanted him to come home, and he would keep fighting knowing that when it was over that there would be no pain, but joy and peace.
On Monday January 07, we got a call that he was not doing so well. A family fast was started on Wed, for answers to prayers and to questions. And that night our prayers were answered, and our questions were answered with peace and comfort that our Heavenly Father knows each of us and has a plan for us, and when it is accomplished we are called home. So shortly after 10:30 while in his sweet Mothers arms Chance was called home to his Heavenly Father, He was met by many loved ones that could not wait to see him.
In Chances life Day after day, and surgery after surgery, and trial after trial, since the day he was born, he had his ups and downs, yet through them all he remained strong, and an example of courage and faith to us all. Throughout these last four months we have benefited by knowing Chance, we have grown stronger as a family and as friends, and we will be able to overcome any obstacle in our way because of him. We love him and know that we will see him again, and that he is watching over us every day.

Surgery # 5

Chance under went yet another surgery this week... he was scheduled to go in on Wednesday the 28th, however he ended up having a bit of an episode that altered the plans a bit! That afternoon as they were preparing him to go in for surgery, however Chance ended up having what looked like a slight seizure... before we knew what was happening his chest had tightened up, he had turned purple and stopped breathing. As we watch helplessly at his bedside not knowing what the outcome would be they finally bagged him and started manually pumping air into his little lungs. They then decided that it was time to finally inti bate him again after struggling to keep his oxygen levels and heart rate up. A while later after things had calmed down a bit they informed us that he would be going to surgery on Friday instead and that the episode that he had, had was most likely due to the fluid in his chest. Well Friday finally came and we were nervous for yet another day that week for the biggest surgery that would decide our son's fate! We were met this day by several family members there to offer their love and support as we took them in one by one to see Chance. Surgery that day was suppose to take place at 12:30 p.m. but as usual the surgical team fell behind with another case and so he was unable to go until 2:30 p.m. the procedure was to take about 3- 3 1/2 hours. When we finally saw Dr. Myers at 5:30 p.m. we were all relieved to hear that things went very well... she informed us that our prayers had been answered and that when she removed the patch on his belly she was pleasantly surprised to see that the cyst that had been causing him so much grief had disappeared! and that she was finally able to see his stomach,liver, large and small intestines! and they all look healthy!!! Dr. Myers also said that she was able to reattach his bowels!!! however she did have to remove 4 cm. of intestine and also his appendix and cecum. this is a similar picture of what was done.

Dr. Rebeka L. Meyers

Lately Chance has definitely had his better days right now he is on a long road to recovery yet again and the edema that seems to have over taken his little body doesn't seem at the current time to be getting any better, but we just pray at this time that the clouds will soon part and we will be on our way home TOGETHER!!!

Exhibation

This week Chance is doing rather well... last night they exhibated him in hopes to stimulate him to breath a little more on his own. The breathing line that was in his mouth was removed and replaced with a type of nasal tube instead. We were finally able to see his upper lip for the first time since he was born! So far it looks as though he has his Dad's mouth, ears, and feet and his mom's nose, hands, and chin. Dr. Myer also came and examined him the other day and was at first thinking that she would go in and do another surgery on him the week of Thanksgiving, however after seeing how well he was progressing and how good his stomach looks she has decided to give him one more week in hopes to go in and remove the cyst and re-attach his bowels and close his belly!!! Everyone at the hospital has been so impressed with how much his stomach has healed and reduced in size! Also they started him on fat free breast milk this week and is doing well with it! and he also took his first pacifier today! Each day Chance becomes more and more alert and likes to look around at things in his isolet. He responds to the sound of Mom and Dad's voices and loves to hold hands! We were also able to hear his first cry the other day! In some ways it's exciting to hear your baby cry for the first time but under the circumstances it breaks your heart... you are unable to hold and comfort your child, a simple hand on his tiny little head never seems to be enough.

two months old!!!

Chance is now two months old!!! despite all the obsticals he has stayed strong! We are happy to say that he is doing well. He has had a couple of really good weeks so far this month and we continue to see him improve each day. This week Dr. Myer stopped by to see him and said that she would like to try some new feedings. They decided to start him on a formula called preframil, it contains very little to no fat so that his little belly will hopefully be able to tolerate it better, if it works they will start him on spun breast milk (breast milk that has been spun to separate out the fat). However as far as the swelling goes, Dr. Myer informed us that she won't do any further surgeries on him until he is no longer producing liquid from his chest tubes. So far they were able to get rid of the chest tube on his right side, now we are just waiting on the left one. Also they are doing weekly eye exams, and watching them closely to be sure that the vessels in his eyes continue to develop normally. They are also going to start weening him off his morphine! their hope is to get him completely off by his next surgery. We continue to pray for these good weeks... It is definitely a miracle to see him grow and develop and change each week, and we are so very blessed to have him a part of our lives.

swelling

The week started out quite good! Chance was doing rather well considering and things seemed to be looking up for a change... until Thursday. Mike called to check on him Thursday morning to find out that Chance had a rather rough night. He had started retaining the fluids that they had been putting into his little body, therefor began to swell immensely weighing 3lbs and 10oz with fluid. His little ears looked to be about three times what they should be and his sweet little face was hardly recognizable... The nurses tried to prepare us for what we would see, but there really is no preparation for something like this. They tried several things to get the swelling down, theyve ran lasiks at least twice a day and also albumin. They said that one of the problems was that his urine out put was low and just wasnt able to get rid of it on his own. Yesterday they finally decided to put a chest tube in, they had inserted one earlier the day before to drain some fluid that he had on his lungs but decided to leave this one in until the swelling goes down. That night just hours after putting the chest tube in the swelling began to decrease, so far they have received 320cc's of fluid from his tiny little body. Later that night we went back to check on Chance and he is starting to look like himself again, the swelling in his face is still pretty sugnifficant but is getting smaller each day. Thursday Dr. Myer will be back to check on him to see if there is a need to go back to surgery sooner than anticipated. One thing that some of the nurses are concerned about is that the pressure from his belly is putting to much strain on his kidneys making it difficult for him to pass urine. "we pray for weird things here" as the nurses at Primary's say, the first month its poop this month its pee!! So far Chance is doing a bit better but is yet in need of many prayers... we are so very grateful for all that have been offered up so far in his behalf and ours.