Expecting God's Miracles!

Well I have great news. Ava had her swallow study test today and it was much better than five weeks ago. They had to put an NG down her nose to her stomach because I just didn't think she would drink the Barium. Wow did she fight it. Her whole face got blochy and red. She screamed so loud. I just hate to hold her down for things like that. BUT it did serve it's purpose. Her stomach is "dumping" (emptying) normal. (Five weeks ago it took 45 minutes to empty!) I was just so surprised to see it going into her small intestines and then her large. She took about 6 xrays over a period of about 5 hours. The last xray showed it was almost through her intestinal track. I was over joyed PLUS they found NO BLOCKAGE! This is our Christmas MIRACLE. Ava's doctors were not expecting these results. Sitting here I just can hardly believe it still. So the plans for the ten plus hour surgery "could be" GONE! She does have inflamed bowels. This is due to her recent surgeries and possible intestinal "bugs." She will getting a very strong IV antibodics for about 5 days. If we see improvement we will continue if not we will stop the antibodic. They really have to be extremely careful with antibodics on her. We have to treat the right bug with the right medicine. We just can't have a bad virus go to her Hicmann line. That would be very bad.
My little "trouper!"
Grandma D and Miss Ava waiting in between xrays! She kept giving Ava Elmos stickers.

The live xray machine. Where is Ava going? A big machine for a little girl!

This picture shows her stomach just emtpied into her small intestines. It was the best picture I got.

So they are going to lower her TPN (nutrients) from 16 hours to 14 hours so that she might get her appetite back. I still am concerned that she is still throwing up once or twice a day but they think this could be due to her inflamed bowels.

Now the scary news was that it was very raining and slick this morning right before we got to Iowa City. In our town the temperature was 41 but as we got closer the temp dropped quickly to 29. People were slidding off the road. Many were in the ditches. We prayed and ask God to help us be calm and get us there. If you know me you know I don't drive in bad weather. I was very frightened. BUT we did get there all in one piece. On the way home it was very dangerous as well. Then as we got closer to home it got worse. We got about 3 inches of snow today on top of the freezing rain.

All in all it was a great doctor's visit. Ava's intestines need to start working so we will try to get her to eat more. I don't push food on her. I simply, casually ask if she wants something we are eating. If she does not want it I say nothing further. This is the hard part. The GI docs were talking about a G tube (a feeding tube in her stomach) but I want to stay with the TPN and Hicmann line for a while. It is working so why cause stress on her intestines. We may come to that but right now she is doing great.

Grandma keeping Miss Ava busy during doctor visits!

So please continue to pray that Ava's insides keep healing. This is really a Miracle all that we found out today. If she starts eating they may be able to just close her muscles and sew up her stomach. Wouldn't that be wonderful? It would for our Ava.

For now we will keep doing what we are doing. Ava is such a blessing. She just doesn't let things get her down. WE were at the hospital from about 8am to 4pm. It was a long day but God gave us some fabulous news!

On Sunday night we finally took our family Christmas pictures. I just love taking them but I guess I'm the only one that enjoys this! Crazy pictures and ALL!

Thanks again for all the love, support and prayers! I believe in Miracles, DO YOU?

~Terri