So sad to see her cry.

Ava is resting right now and her heart rate has slowed. It has been in the 150-180's all day. She did have a fever but that is gone no. She is warm blooded like her Dad. She can't have the covers on or else the fever returns. She is such a champ.

Her xrays this morning showed that her left and right lung has cleared up quite a bit but her right lung is still partialy collapsed on the bottom. She has been coughing so much. I can see it hurts so bad to cough but she does it anyway. That is huge in getting her lungs clear and to get her moving in the right direction to get her off the ventilator! I don't want them weaning her too fast. I know Ava and she doesn't like fast change. She gets that from Me!

She did start to cry today and I felt so bad for her. If you don't have much experience with crying and the vents then you probably are not aware that no sound comes out just facial expressions. That must be so frustrating to not even be able to cry. It made me feel again so terrible hurt for her. Then Brian woke up for the day and went to use the bathroom and she started crying again. She wanted her Daddy. Oh how this is so difficult. I can't reason with a two year old that it will be okay pretty soon.

I decided to get away for a few hours today. I went to get my eyebrows waxed at the mall. Hip, hip hoorah! Yea that was my outing. I then went to Target to get Ava a new Halloween Barney movie. She is going to love it!

So all in all today has gone fine. Her tummy looks better to me with this sponge on top with the vacuum suction. It actually look s a tiny bit less swollen although the measurement comes out the same size as the other one.

So on we go to the recovery process. Ava will need another surgery in a few month but for now she will live with her tummy opened so that her intestines can heal. They know she has a leak in her bowels but they are going to fix it later. We have a long way to go and we are thanking God for our "One day at a time!"

~The Helmicks