So Close

We almost have the discharge plans in place. Ash is still recovering from pneumonia, but she is improving. Her chest x-ray looks a little better, her energy level is coming up, and her color is back to normal. She is still coughing a tremendous amount and with all of that coughing comes vomiting, but we all feel as though she is going to beat this thing right here in Longview. You have no idea how good it feels to type that last sentence! It will be the first time EVER for us not to have to transfer via ambulance and med flight out of our local hospital.

The plan was to discharge this morning, but her labs showed a dangerous decline in her potassium. With a level so low the doctor is not comfortable sending her the few blocks to home until it comes back up. We will be giving her some through her g-tube in hopes of seeing it trend back up. With a level as low as hers is this morning you run the risk of irregular heart beat and the possibility of the heart stopping. Trust me when I tell you we don't want to take that risk. We've been there and done that already and its something I hope to never see one of my children endure ever again. Once was too much. If her levels come up by the 4pm labs then we will take her home this evening. If not, then we will remain until they recover.

Once we go home she will be on her IV antibiotic every 8 hours for the next 10 days. In addition to that she will be receiving breathing treatments every 6 until the pneumonia resolves and we are symptom free and cough free.

There are lots of things that need to happen for her today and one of them is a bath! She came in with shiny, clean, yummy smelling hair and this morning I walked in(Dave spent the night with her) and she has the yuckiest, stiffest hair I've ever seen. Its definitely not an Ashley look. So I will be wrestling her as soon as her TPN and antibiotic finish running. She'll hate the whole sponge bath routine, but once its done and she has pretty hair, clean jammies, and big bow she'll thank me for it. Well, maybe not actually thank me, but I can imagine it will make her feel better.

I spent the night at home with Blake and Al. Allie has eyes! That is a huge improvement. She is finally able to see. I can tell its getting better. She's not quite recognizable, but you can see it healing. Yesterday, the doctor shared with me that she could be home with this and out of school for 2-4 weeks! Until I saw her last night I was leaning toward the 4 week timeline, but she may actually make it back after staying home for just one more. I'm hoping so anyway. She's bored and really behind in her assignments. Now that she can see we will be spending the weekend playing as much catch up as she can tolerate. She might prefer to have her eyes swollen shut when she sees all those assignments!

It should be(fingers crossed) a nice quiet weekend at home. Dave and I will be tag teaming through the nights as we work to get Ash well. Allie will be doing lots of homework. Blake will be spending lots of time in the batting cage. That's the plan if all goes well.

Thank you for your prayers. We hope to have her pneumonia free and on the mend very, very soon. Have a great day. Trish