Pulmonary Lung function test

Hello Ava friends! Hate to say this but... she's been fighting another cold. She had an appointment with the pulmonologist on Friday for her six month Pulmonary lung function test. Even though she had a bad cold, with the Albuteol medicines she scored a "normal range" result. We are just so amazed at what God keeps doing with this little Lady!

I made a little video of her test. The doctor was pleased at how her technique has improved. It takes a little time to be familiar with how to do the test. She improved quite a bit this time. (We practice at home!) The better the technique the better the results.



She is getting so big. She is now 43 pounds and is 4 foot one inches tall. She's growing better than a weed! She always follows their instruction and is smiling. It's wonderful though we haven't been to the University in seven months!

The Children's hospital of Iowa is under construction right now. It's pretty cool to see all the work they are doing.

The doctor is so pleased with how the cold regimen is going. When Ava gets a cold we start her on the Albuterol inhaler. Then if that stops working then we go to the liquid Prednisone. She stays on that until her cough is gone. Generally being on the steroid for about 5 days the cough starts to fade. She also gets pulled from school to focus on getting her lungs clear. They were shocked that she didn't need anymore steroids that what they had prescribed. When they are happy then I am happy!

She did very well with her test. We are so proud of her!

If you could please say a prayer that she can kick this cold. It started on Tuesday. It got worse and by Saturday night we were up pretty much all night with her coughing. Her stats drop to about 92 then she coughs and they go up slightly. Last night she did much better. Her oxygen levels stayed about 95 and she coughed a lot less. The steroids really do the trick. I told the doctor that those steroid for Ava is a Miracle drug. He assures us that less than a week dose doesn't cause immune depression. She's been out of school since Monday.

I went to Ava's school conference on Wednesday. Her teacher is thrilled that Ava is doing so well. The start of the school year we started an IEP for Ava. This simply means she has a "learning disability" and needs a little extra help. Since she's been born it takes her a little longer to learn things than the average child. However her teacher said that Ava is excelling and is a really good reader. She knows all of her sight words for Kindergarten and is moving onto the first grade words. She loves Math and is also doing well in all other areas of school. She does miss many days but she makes up her work at home. A few weeks ago the school took her out of her special help classes (with my permission) as they feel she doesn't need them anymore. This was HUGE to me. That meant that she didn't need that extra boost of help. She was learning with her teacher basically on her own. She was becoming normal". I love and hate that word.

She can't wait until next week for Easter. The excitement is growing. My parents always throw a large egg hunt. Oh the FUN!

As always thanks for checking in on Ava. We love your support, love and prayers. Keep them coming!!

~Terri