Up and At'em

Finally, after 29 days in bed she is "up and at'em". With much protest she allowed me to get her out of the bed and place her in this cube for physical therapy. Not a happy camper, and I didn't realize her pants weren't on until I posted the picture, but here she is in all of her debut glory. Our little one is going to bounce back from this. Sweet Ashley just begins to make progress with her therapy at home and then BAM! out of no where we land right back in the hospital and are forced to start again. Even with all of her fussing and protesting I was very proud of her as I watched her kick her legs, bounce her feet up and down and push against the sides of the cube with her arms. She did a really good job. She threw all of her toys across the room, held a book, opened and closed her DVD player, and took lots and lots of drinks to keep her energy up. It may not sound like much, but she was down for a really, really long time on the ventilator this admission and just a week ago she was too weak to hold a small toy much less a book. She is getting stronger every day.

I shared this picture with you so you could also see the chest tube and chamber that she has attatched to her left side. The column on the far right is where the fluid is collected and each chamber holds 200mls(or ccs) of fluid. There are 30ccs in an ounce and Ash has filled 6 chambers to date and the one you see in the picture had just been attached. Can you see the yellow fluid inside of the tube? That is what is coming out of the plural space outside her lung. It just won't stop. There is no plan to make it stop. Nothing that can be done other than waiting it out. With each new chamber I find myself getting a little more discouraged. If this doesn't stop, then we can't be discharged home. If we can't be discharged home then we are forced to stay around all the germs and virus' in the hospital and trying to keep her well is not going to be an easy task. (Even though this cube looks disguisting I assure it was thouroughly cleaned and sanitized before she ever touched it!)

During rounds this afternoon I was told that a 3 month admission would be compeltely reasonable and I should expect it to be that long. Blown away is all I can say aoubt that. This is why we desperately want to transfer closer to home now that Ash is not in a critical state. The request wasn't very well received, but I didn't expect it to be. We are still talking and nothing has been decided. There are things that were said to us that were very disturbing and a little frightening, but I think that was the whole point behind making those statements. Please continue to pray about this situation. Spending 3 months away from home again sends me into a panic and I can't help but cry. A lot. We need God to soften hearts and nothing short of that will make this transfer possible. Our flight crew and our local doctors in Shreveport and Longview are supportive and do not feel we have made an unreasonable request. Just pray, pray, pray. I don't know what else to do.