Long Night Ahead of Us

Ashley's CBC results today came back very abnormal.  Almost all numbers where at panic values and registering very, very low.  We had no indication this was taking place inside of her because she seems very, very normal, but after repeating the labs in hopes of error it was decided that a blood transfusion would be necessary in order to keep her safe.  Her H and H were critically low as were her WBC and RBC.

We stayed home through the afternoon while we waited for the blood to be brought to Longview and prepared for her rather than waiting it out in the ER.  Let me once again say how incredibly grateful I am for our team of local physicians who keep Ash's comfort in mind as they treat her.  I can't imagine how difficult it would have been to wait the 7 hours in the ER. I simply can't fathom how long that would have made the day.  Instead she played at home all afternoon and rested and waited.  She was admitted tonight at 10 and we started the blood at midnight.  We will be here most of tonight and should go home sometime around 5am to hopefully get some sleep.

I'm so proud of Ashley Kate.  She has grown and matured so, so much!  She knows where we are and has been so very brave about coming into the hospital.  You can see the recognition on her face and in her eyes as she remembers the sights and the sounds around here.  She was a little uneasy having to go into the treatment room to be weighed and it was so obvious that she remembered the many attempts at IVs and such and the pain endured there.  The monitors began beeping and she paused...looked at it...looked at us...and let us know she recalled the sound.  She's being so good with having her leads, blood pressure cuff, and O2 monitor on.  These are all triggers for her that in the past have caused fear and panic to well up inside of her as she realized that she was sick and back in the hospital.  Tonight she's just blown me away at how mature she's handling it all.  She is precious and sweet and so very brave.  Of course nothing being done to her tonight is causing her any pain, but usually just the memories of past admissions and the pain endured have caused her much struggle.  Tonight she's not afraid.

The best guess any of us have as to what is taking place is that her liver is sick.  Its struggling and causing that "traffic jam" we were taught about when she was an infant.  When the liver begins to struggle then the other organs and systems that depend on it to do its job adequately begin to struggle too.  I think the low blood counts are all related to her livers ability to function.

She actually looks and appears to feel pretty good.  I would have never guessed she would require intervention today based on her presentation.  She is happy and silly.  She's been giggly all day and continues to be tonight.

We feel so blessed to be taken of care in the manner that we always are while in patient here.  There are some very good people in our community who take such good care of Ash.  I am so very grateful to have them on our team.

So if all goes well and there are no complications we will be home sleeping in our own beds by early morning and will probably stay there for awhile.  I'm not expecting her to sleep much up here tonight.  She's playing and pretty wound up right now.