Appointment Day

Hello Ava followers. I feel like it's been a long time since I've updated. Hope things are well with all of you. Ava slowly got over the virus she had. Oddly she had a cough for a good month. We are happy that it finally found the door out! Yesterday we had checkups with three different doctors at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics. On our way...

 

The children's hospital is really coming along fast. We try to take a picture each time we go. Silly me grabbed my Canon but forgot to get a card in it.... so the phone had to do it all today!

 



 It was just follow through appointments. Here are her "stats" as we call them. Her temperature was 98.6. Pulse was 96. (Very typical.) Her respiratory was 22. Blood pressure was 92/62. Her height 4'7.83". Weight 57lb. 8.6oz. Body mass index was 12.98 and oxygen was 100%. First she saw Nephrology, Dr. Diana Zepeda-Orozco. Ava loves her! She was having bed wetting issues. We have finally gotten her down to only wetting the bed 2-3 nights a weeks so MUCH improvement there! She was so happy for Ava as are we! The next thing she did was a lung function test. She was very worried about it this time for some reason. She asked me if we could skip it. I told her that if she only did her best that was all we could ask of her. Funny thing... she did AMAZING! The best ever so far. Next she saw her pulmonary NP Samantha Lee. We have had her the last three visits and really like her. She gets Ava's personality and loves asking her questions. Ava answers them all! She was happy to see that Ava had few asthma flare ups and was so healthy. The final appointment of the day was by her GI doctor Dr. Ebach. She's so good with Ava. We were a little shocked she had lost a ton of weight. I told her she looked so good. After that she asked Ava is she even recognized her. We laughed! She was very happy with Ava's health. We told her that occasionally about 2-3 times a week she needs a "rescue" as Ava and I call it, antacid for stomach pain. She told us that it started happening more to please let them know as they would do an endoscopy to see if there was something more going on. She's on Prevacid everyday to control her reflux but sometimes it's just not enough. Ava was getting very tired of the visits so it was nice when we were all done.

 

Sitting there in the office I started remembering ALL she had been through in her life. Her birthday is coming up next month and I start reliving that all over again. I was telling Brian that as SOON as I hit the parking garage I get this panic feeling that she isn't going to make it. I have to look at her and assure myself that she DID make it and it's all okay. I've found myself suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. It happens when I least expect it. There can be a noise that sounds like a ventilator or someone in my family can become ill and it set me into a panic mode. I thank God every time that and reassure myself that things are good. God has been so good to us! I couldn't ask for anything more. The other day I was feeling down. (A lot has been going on in my immediate family with death and sickness.) I try not to let my kids see me sad. I'm always the strong one. The other day I was watching tv and Ava came in and curled up beside me, hugged me and said, "Mom I love you so much. You are the best mom in the whole world." Boy oh boy did I need that! As she left the room tears filled my eyes. THAT I told myself... that little girl almost didn't survive. THAT little girl 9 years ago was in my tummy and I was encouraging her each minute. I was telling her she was strong. She was loved and she could fight to stay with us. And you all know the rest of the story. SHE DID it! I marvel and thank God that He decided that I needed her right now. Ah... the love I feel. When I'm feeling down I think of God's wonderful, unfailing love. He knows exactly what I need and He knows your needs too! We decided to eat at Steak and Shake, a restaurant that we don't have in our town. Silly Ava right here...

 

As we were coming home from Iowa City we kept hearing the warnings of severe storms in our area. The closer we got the darker and scarier it looked out. Then they said the people on the road we were on should get off of it as a possible tornado was possible. We were pretty scared but found our way home. A town about 35 minutes from us got hit pretty hard by a tornado. We were lucky. We were safe! Praise God.

Thanks for checking up on Ava. We always appreciate your thoughts and prayers! We have been blessed with great health for her and I know it's in part to all her prayer warriors out there.

~Terri