Getting Back To Her Old Self!

Well the weekend is nearing an end and Maddison has been doing well. She was given blood products yesterday and she sprang up and was like her old… well maybe 80% of her old self! She started talking right away and wanted to get out of bed and play. She was able to hold her body up by herself where just hours before she couldn’t hold her head up! They told us that she was anemic and it’s amazing how big of a difference the blood made!

She is doing well today. She slept most of the morning. But she was up until midnight last night. Mike & I werent’ able to leave her until she went to sleep! So she slept in. She’s been awake and playing since around 3pm today and we are hoping to keep her up until 8-9 so we can actually get to bed at a decient time this evening! Mike is driving back to Lakeland so he can’t be driving back that late! She’s been rubbing her eyes the past half hour so we’ll see if she can make it another 2 hours… I’m guessing not! Haha…

We were told today that they’d like to give her antibiotics until Thursday of this week and if she is off the oxygen and doing well we could possibly go home on Friday! This is the first we’ve heard of going home at all so we were excited!! She’s had a few low grade fevers today but overall it’s been a good day.

They did get a little more aggressive with her pneumonia. They put this vest around her chest and it shakes her for 20 minutes! It actually looks like it would be that comfortable but so far she’s been doing okay with it! They also changed one of her inhalants to a stronger med so we are hoping that will help that lung as well.
We’ll keep ya posted on how the weeks progresses! I hope to be going home this coming weekend… wouldn’t that be WONDERFUL!
Ashley

Feeling a little better today

Maddison had a rough day yesterday. When I came in she had a fever over 102 and she ran a fever all day. She couldn’t get comfortable at all so she tossed and turned all day. By the end of the day her eyes were rolling in the back of her head. The doctors decided to remove her central line in her leg and replace it up on her shoulder. They felt that there could be infection there since her body was not reacting to the antibiotics that she’s been on. They also added a third antibiotic on yesterday.

They were alternating Tylenol and Motrin every 3 hours and her fever just wouldn't break. I came in this morning and she looks like a different kid! She has been sleeping most of the day since I got here and is actually able to relax! I’m not sure if it was the line or one of the meds but she hasn’t had a fever all day and she looks like she is on the upswing again.

They have restarted her feeds. They said they hope to have her up to full feeds quickly. She is still on oxygen mostly for comfort. She tends to get on a coughing spell and can’t stop. When she’s not breathing in good her stats tend to drop quite a bit.

Her incision looks good. Just a few scabs but overall it looks clean. They took the stitch out of the last chest tube site yesterday so that wound is still pretty fresh but overall those are doing well. I am heading home this afternoon to spend the night with my older daughter Mackenzie. I haven’t seen her in nearly 2 weeks and I really miss her. We are going on have a “girls night”. Mike is going to come over with Maddi this evening to keep her company. We'll keep ya posted on the updates. We hope to be heading towards recovery at this point so we can get home. We ALL miss everyone being home together.

Ashley

Got a bath today!

Maddi had a steady day. Nothing all that new. They are going to bring in a doctor tomorrow from infectious disease to see what their opinion is on why she is spiking high temps. She’s run a low to mid-grade fever for about 5-6 days now. They have her on two different kinds of antibiotics but so far they’ve not helped. They told me that they should be helping at this point. They did switch one to another med today and have her getting Tylenol every 4 hours. She only got one low grade fever this morning right when I came in. The rest of the day she was good.

She seemed much more comfortable today. She is still very weak but she didn’t act like she felt as bad as yesterday. They are going to be going up on her feeds tomorrow. She’s only getting 5cc per hour at this point and her goal is 30cc per hour. Hopefully despite her being “sick” with the pneumonia she will keep it down. Typically when she gets sick at home she doesn’t do all that well but we’ll see. Only time will tell. I think if she gets more food in her belly she’ll gain some strength. She can hardly hold her head up at this point.

She did get a sponge bath today! Been 8 days since she had one so she was way past due! Haha… she smelled like a foot. She was so happy to be nice and clean in her new sheets. She rolled over and went to sleep! Got a photo from today attached. Every day she gets better, and one day closer to coming home!

Ashley