HAPPY BIRTHDAY GABBY….And clinic visit update

My baby turned FIVE… as of 7:30-ish this morning! Ahhhh, I remember the whole three hours it took to bring her into this world… and the immense JOY of seeing her and holding her for the first time! She was SO SO SO adorable! And still is!!!! And it was REALLY funny that she decided to make her appearance so fast, when the doctor finally ran it to “catch her”, he was still wearing his baseball hat:-) I know you ALL wanted to know that *grin*

We had a good two-day celebration… family was over yesterday for her “family” birthday party (we grilled out hamburgers) and then today we made her breakfast in bed (with a Hello Kitty Pancake!) and had birthday cookies/brownies after dinner.

Tomorrow, my in-laws and three girls will be leaving to go to NC for two weeks. I’ll miss them SO SO SO SO SO much, but it’s gonna be a busy two weeks so I know it will go by fast!

On Annabelle front:

We had our first monday clinic visit today. The visit itself went well. It was long… they were REALLY busy…

ECHO still didn’t confirm or deny if she was really in rejection last week. Steroids may have helped her lungs, or they could have gotten her out of rejection. Regardless, they helped. Her tricuspid valve jet is slightly improved now, but we might not ever know for sure.

Doctor called later today. They are worried because her blood pressure was lower than normal, so decided to take her off one of her diuretics and lower the dose of one of her blood pressure medicines.

They also said they wanted to increase our visits from 2 per week to 3. *sigh* I don’t mind… I’d rather be home and come back for clinic visits instead of being in the hospital, but it is still hard to make so many 45 minute trips. Here’s to hoping gas prices go down soon!!!! (I can hope right?!?)

Then they called and said they had overlooked her chloride number, and it was WAY WAY too low. So they decreased another diuretic, added a supplement, and asked that we come back TOMORROW instead of Wednesday for blood draw and recheck of electrolytes. *sigh* But whatever she needs to keep her well, that’s what we will do.

Got a “bill” from Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. Thought you would all enjoy this.

For the WHOLE time that Annabelle was in the hospital…. 7/20/10 – 5/24/11 (not including last week)… she spent

250 days in the PICU
  58 days in a regular patient room.

And her total hospital bill… BEFORE the insurance discount but NOT counting ANY physician charges…

over $4,250,000.00

YIKES!

Let’s all just say, THANK GOODNESS for insurance!

**tuesday morning update**

*yawn* Not a great night. Kiddos are gone on their trip, I’ve been pretty much up since 3 this morning with her. She kept gagging and retching so much that her Gtube leaked (she has a nissen so can’t throw up, so it just puts pressure on her tube.) I kept venting her Gtube, having formula literally blown all over me when I did so, until I finally just stopped her feeds, brought her out to the living room and snuggled her back to sleep. She also had a few explosive poops (sorry…. bowel movements…) so I think her tummy was just upset. Unsure if this has anything to do with her not-so-stellar numbers yesterday or the med changes last night. Kinda glad we are headed to clinic today though!!! Although I WISH I was headed to BED!

Grandma Johnson got me a Larry the Cucumber!! She knows how much I LOVE Veggietales!

Where’s Annabelle?!?

There she is!!! Playing with the tassels on Mommy’s bed! She thought snuggling in the pillows was SUCH fun!