Laughter...

What an amazing medicine laughter can be to heal a hurting heart! Even His word tells us so. This morning my awnry little one laughed out loud as she would hit me in the head with a toy and I would say,"OUCH!" She is the funniest baby. The joy welled up inside of my heart as I continued to allow her to "get" me with that silly bug. Her laugh is the sweetest sound. Between her coughing and vomitting from all of the drainage it is such a healing to my worried heart to listen to her laugh. I thank God for the gift of laughter. Ashley has a twinkle in her eye and her puffy little cheeks look so cute when she is smiling this morning.

Unfortunately she is vomitting again. I am a little concerned because it seems to be connected with the increase in her feeds, it really isn't. Each time they have begun to feed Ash, she has had some kind of respiratory junk that causes her to cough which in turn causes her to spit up all of the mucus. Along with the mucus comes her formula. My heart is disappointed because I know they will cut back her feeds in response to the vomitting. Ashley desperately needs to be fed in order to protect her new liver. I feel like we are in an ugly cycle of events which keeps us from getting her off the TPN. My prayer today is that Ash would just get over this "yucky" stuff quickly before her feeds are to be shut off. This mornings plan before the vomitting was to increase slowly today and reach 20ccs by tonight which would allow us to decrease the TPN by 5 ccs. We are now waiting for a decision to be made whether or not her feeds should be shut off.

We may get to move out of the PICU and up to the 6th floor in a respiratory isolation area. The PICU is very full and Ash is one of the more stable patients down here. I am praising God for that and counting my blessings. This would be a positive step up for us, but a little dangerous because of the "bug" issue. So far both RSV and influenza have not shown up, but they will keep growing stuff for days to come looking for an answer to her illness. I prefer to be in isolation because that requires everyone who enters her room to be in a gown, gloves and mask. I think this reduces her risk of picking up any more infections, so in my opinion,"Bring on the isolation!" Maybe this is what it will take to get her over this hump and start her on the road to recovery? That is my prayer.

The children in my home are all excited about the stroller thon tomorrow. I pray there is a good turn out of support for Ash. I am so thankful to those of you who have made plans to attend and for those who have worked so very hard for our gherkin. We love you guys and appreciate all you do for our family. Take care today and I will check in with you all later today. Thanks for praying!