Diagnosis- Asthma

Hello Ava followers! We took Ava to her Pulmonary doctor this morning in Iowa City. I was wanting to learn why her oxygen levels were not staying up due to her colds. He was pretty confident by reading her history and hearing her cold regime that she has Asthma. It really didn’t come as a huge shock as we know her lungs are not the best due to her congenital diaphragmatic hernia at birth. She did an x-ray today. She’s such a good little girl. (Forgive the quality of the pictures as they were taken from my cell phone.)

X-rays along with older CT scans showed less blood flow in her left lung (bad lung). Otherwise her lungs looked clear. As you can still see her heart is still pushed far over to the right taking up some of her right lung space.

The plan is to start the Albuterol inhalers and Steroids at the first sign of coughing. (She normally only coughs when she has a cold.) We talked about possible use of oxygen at home. The doctor wants to see her de-stat and monitor her first. I can’t say I’m surprised. I’m praying that doing these two measures will help calm the beast before the storm so to speak. I do worry so much about her with every illness. She is just so thin.

We also got to see our wonderful NP Josh from Surgery today. I can’t say enough great things about this guy. He’s been such a gift from God to our family. I don’t know what we would do without his deep care for Ava. It’s great to show her off when a lot of what he saw of her was sickness. God’s so good.

I’ll leave this photo of her this morning…. all Smiles!

Please keep praying that she continues to get over this cold. Next week she takes her test for Kindergarten. I won’t even go on about my anxiety over this yet. Thanks for all your wonderful messages of support and love!

~Terri

Better this morning.

Thanks so much for the prayers. Ava didn’t end up going to the hospital. We got her out to the car. She woke, smiled and asked what we were doing out so late. We all laughed. Her stats came up to 95 so we decided to wait it out at home. I gave her another dose of steroids. She never dropped below 95 the rest of the night. Thanks for all the prayers my blog and carepage followers. She's doing better this morning.

I’ll keep everyone updated. I know without a doubt God intervened last night. We are blessed. She is still coughing but is much better with her oxygen levels.

Thanks again for your love, support and prayers.

~Terri

Cold is back

Hello Ava followers. I write this quick update tonight as Ava needs your prayers. She got a cold last week. A small cough. I took her to the doctor yesterday as she complained of her ears aching. She had a very bad ear infection. Her cough was almost gone yesterday but came back with a vengeance today. She’s on breathing treatments and a Steroid for her lungs but she is really worrying me. I have her hooked up to her monitor and she running in the low 90’s. Once she dipped to 86. I have a pretty good feeling we will be taking her to the hospital tonight. I don’t want to but she will most likely need oxygen. Pray it’s not pneumonia or anything worse.

I did make her a cute little Petti Romper today and asked if she felt up to modeling it for me. She smiled and agreed. So here she was today.

Please pray for little Ava. Her little body has barely any reserves. Thanks again for all your love and support.

~Terri