Day 31 :) :) :) :)

SooooOOoOOoooOOOOOo as long as everything goes well, no surprises, no nothing then we will be going home tomorrow!! Yay!!!

As Ive been saying, Dahlia is doing so good. Aside from running around, she is pretty much back to her normal self. She will be going home with the drain so we will have to keep an eye on it until it stops draining, hopefully this will be soon.

So the plan is that we get discharged tomorrow morning and meet the home care nurse at noon at our house.

So happy to be going home! I'm sure once Dahlia gets there she will be so happy too! Yay!!!

She still has the infection so we are still hoping and praying that it goes away. She will be on at least 6 weeks of IV antibiotics to give her the best chance at getting rid of this. If it doesn't go away, she will need another surgery to get rid of the infected patch that was used to repair her diaphragm. They will then have to wait for the infection to clear before they can do surgery again to repair in yet again. Needless to say we are praying that this ugly infection GOES AWAY!!!!

Yay home!!

Day 29

Hello all.

We are so close to going home. Dahlia still has that drain in and its been draining some puss looking junk so they want to keep her here until it clears up. Last week they were saying, "it should clear up by the end of this week", this week they are saying the same thing.

While she is here, she is living it up. She's feeling a lot better. She's getting a little more brave and walking a bit more in the play room. She has her personal donkey (me) take her for walks a couple times a day. And we read tons of books. Well more like the same books a ton of times.

Here are some cute pictures of my cute baby.

Day 24

So much to be thankful for huh? This year and every year, past, present and future.

Although we didn't get to spend it with either of our crazy families, we were visited by the Thanksgiving turkey who delivered a fresh Thanksgiving dinner! Moms turkey, stuffing & yams, Larrisas ham, Lennys mac & cheese muffins and rolls of bread. Like many of you, we were stuffed!! And what was my thought once I hit food coma..... wheres the dessert?!

Here are a couple of pictures of our fesitivies.......

Some people play football on Thanksgiving, we played Cribball!! Notice the ball flying over the crib.

Special delivery form the Thanksgiving Turkey....

Here is a shot of Dahlia enjoying some of the feast.

Can you tell which one is the real cookie jar?

Day 22.

Little Miss. Dahlia is doing great.

The drain thats still attached to her is draining less and less so it should be out by the time we get home. She also seems to be responding well to the antibiotics because aside from walking, she is almost back to her normal self. She's eating, playing, talking, yelling, hitting, pushing papa away, giving kisses and so on.

Yesterday the surgery team told us that they are still trying to figure out what is the best antibiotics to give her once we are home. Since she is currently getting 4 different ones, its a little difficult to see if they can condense it to one.

Also, even though it will be me or Abel who administer the medication through her PICC line, we still need to be set up with an at home nurse who will check the PICC line and change the dressing when needed. They said because of the holiday weekend, it will be pretty hard to find someone soon. Case and point, we will probably be here until next week.

Its OK, again there was some disappointment but its OK. She's being taken care of here very well and she's feeling better. This means we can go for more walks in the wagon and maybe even visit the play room.

They also started teaching me and Abel how to give her her meds through the PICC line. I've been doing it since yesterday and its not really hard. You just have to be careful to keep everything sterile.

So progress is good. Needless to say there is a lot to be thankful for these days and everyday. :)


Please don't judge my baby by her hair. Its still early and she's got a bit of bed head. Also, she's in the middle of breakfast. Eggs, bread, cheese, danish....

This is a closer picture of her PICC line. It will say like this when we go home. Its secured on her arm very well with a couple of sutures and see through tape. I will most likely keep this covered up with a sleeve or something once we get home. Plus she's been very good so far at not grabbing it.

Day 19.

Dahlia is getting better and better. Today she finally woke up in Dahlia style saying, "mom? mom?" and then giving me a huge smile when I walked over to her.

She's eating so much and being her goofy self. She sat up for a little bit today but she gets tired very fast. She is still scheduled to get a PICC line tomorrow around 10:30am. Again, its not surgery but she does have to be put under general anesthesia so that they can get it in with her being still.

She has one last drain hooked up to her and its still draining a bit. Hopefully it will stop in a couple of days so that she won't have to go home with it.

So it still looks like Wednesday or Thursday for a possible discharge.

Praying she continues recovering as well as she is.     :)

Day 16

Dahlia woke up looking, acting and feeling a lot better. She still has some moments when she gets upset and seems uncomfortable but she is also talking and laughing a lot. She is talking to the TV saying, "Oh no, OH NO, oh NO" and laughing as I type.

Dahlia will be going home with a PICC line. This is so that I will be able to give her her medications at home. She won't be getting this until Monday. She will need to be under general anesthesia again to put the PICC line in. Then if all goes well and she continues to do well, we might be able to go home Wednesday or Thursday.

So for now all is going good. Praying and praying that this ugly infection goes away. If it does not, this will mean more surgeries :(

Today a special shout out goes to Francis. She has been Dahlias nurse for the past couple days and she is super awesome. Hopefully by the time she's back we will be long gone. Francis if you are reading this, thank you so much for being so good to Dahlia. For treating her so well and for being so great with us. We've been through a lot of great nurses and you are most definitely one of our most favorites! Be safe and have fun in Texas!

Feeling better :)

Dahlia woke up this morning feeling a lot better. She started talking right away and asked for water. Since they finally ok'd me to give her food I immediately asked her if she wanted cheerios. Her face lite up like a light bulb and she said "YEAH"! She ate a handful of cheerios, 3 butter crackers, and a couple of Gerber maple pinwheels. She's been drinking water and juice too.

They have also started her feeds this morning at a super slow rate. I said this before and I'll say it again, "Praying she keeps it down and poops it out"!!

She played a little this morning with me and the nurse. By the way, I love our nurse today. We've had her once before and she's super awesome. This means a lot when you've been through as many nurses as we have.

OK so hopefully today will be more of the same and better and maybe we will take her for a little stroll in the wagon.

:)