Monday, November 24, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving Abby!

Hi Abby,
It's your daddy. It's Thanksgiving time and you know what that means? That means lots and lots of food! I'm sure you're going to eat half the turkey huh? Hee hee...just kidding. Thanksgiving is also a time to say "thank you" for all the stuff we have and the people we love... and Punky, I love YOU! I am soooooo thankful for you. The best part of my day is walking through the door to see you and Eddie. Every time you do your little run toward me to give me a hug, I fight back the tears. You are a miracle Abby...do you know that? There was a time when mommy and I simply hoped that you would smile at us and know who we were.. I didn't even dream of you walking or talking or anything. And now look at you Punky. Loving on you each day makes everything else seem so trivial. You are such a fighter and always take your challenges head on. I love that about you. I know Emma and Maddy are there with you during those times and that warms my heart.
Your next biggest challenge is your little (or not so little) brother. I love that little guy a whole bunch too and it's fun to watch you with him. I know he gets in your way and bugs you sometimes but let me tell you something Punky, he absolutely adores you. His eyes light up just as much as mine do when you walk in the room. So be nice to him. He's going to get really big and will be a good guy to have on your side! I love you Abby. I am so happy and proud to be your daddy.

Happy Thanksgiving....




ENJOY THE PICS!

Our little girl has been outfitted with yet another accessory. She now has a foot brace which is going to help with her walking. It's called a DAFO #2. For more info on it...click here She walks so much better with this little thing! She takes "correct" steps when she wears it which makes her a lot more stable. And by "correct" steps I mean stepping so her heal lands first and then her toes. Take a step right now and notice that your heal lands first. With Abby's left foot, her toes would land first and that's why she was always so unstable. This brace is fixing that! Wooohooo! One problem though....shoes. We don't have an answer yet either, so stay tuned. Rest assured though, it will be cute, whatever momma decides. Did you know her brace is pink?


Abby loves her DAFO. Check out the fashion pose.

CHECK OUT PUNKY WITH HER NEW GLASSES FROM GRAMMIE PAMMIE!


Abby's church outfit on Sunday. Look at the bows in her hair!

Stop it!


SUPERSTAR!



Ummmm....yyeah....gonna have to keep the pantry door closed from now on....


When we ask Eddie to do his "crazy face" this is what we get! Love it!



Look at my boy! What a little charmer. Don't let him fool you though...he's NUTS!!!!


Monday, November 10, 2008

Abby take the fundo for a test drive

So get this...

Kelly and I took the kids to visit Great Grandpa "G-Pa" and Great Grandma "G-G" in La Quinta this weekend. Friday was great. We took the little bambino's to the pool and they had a great time. Eddie is getting very brave and is very confident around the water which is great. Abby has always been a water lover so of course she was having fun too. For dinner that night we went out to eat and had spinach artichoke dip, mozzarella sticks, penne pasta and bread and dessert. The weekend was off to a fantastic start.
But the next morning, Eddie started throwing up everywhere. Did he swallow too much water at the pool? Did he get too sick with all of the greasy stuff from last night? No. The poor little guy had the stomach flu. And to make it worse, it all started coming out the other end which of course turned his little bum raw. He SCREAMED his heart out every time we had to change him.

Okay, so this is all sad for the little guy, but this is Abby's blog, so what's the big deal? Well, the ONE thing we were hoping to keep Abby away from was the stomach flu. But since Eddie had it, there was virtually no chance Abby would escape it. We were right. By Sunday, Abby was 100% in stomach flu mode. Here's the thing though. Abby has a fundo. The fundo is basically a few pieces of her stomach that have been wrapped around the esophagus and stitched together. This keeps the food Abby eats down which was the goal as we all know, but remember....the bad thing is that Abby CAN'T throw up, not even when she needs to. Instead she wretches and gags(which sounds like dry heaving only ten times worse). The scary thing about this is that there is a very real possibility that Abby will tear the fundo stitches.

After many hours of this horrible retching and tears from Abby, we called the On Call Line for the GI Clinic and luckily, a doctor that has seen a lot of Abby was on call. He said that since Abby was retching for so long (which was every few minutes for hours), we needed to go directly to the ER out there in the dessert. Abby was very nauseated which was causing the retching and the retching also increased her nausea. It was a crazy cycle that we couldn't stop. The purpose for the ER trip was to give her some anti nausea medication (Zofran) in liquid form through an IV so it would work quickly. The docs also needed to check her stomach and feel for any fluid build up which would tell them that the fundo stitches had been ripped.

At 7:30 on Sunday night, we took a tour of the Eisenhower Hospital ER in Rancho Mirage. (It was super nice by the way....no joke) There is no pediatric unit out there, but they were great. They got the IV right in, gave her the Zofran, ran some blood work, and just like that, Abbers was out cold on mommys chest. We hung out for a few hours to make sure she wouldn't start up again and luckily she didn't.

It was not fun my friends. The idea that she could actually rip those stitches scared the junk out of us. Thinking about having to put Abby through that fundo surgery AGAIN makes my heart ache for her. I am so thankful she didn't tear them and everything is still in place. Today she is doing better. She is still needy and groggy and clumsy but she isn't retching and that's great.

So how do you like that? Just another day in the life of Abby. I'm thinking we're due for a nice break. I hope the next few posts throughout the holidays is filled with nothing but fun updates and pictures. I wouldn't mind a few prayers along those lines if you could. Pray that Abby has a nice Thanksgiving and a nice, calm Christmas.

We love you all!

 
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