MY SURPRISE!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday afternoon around 4p.m. I was called by Tara (my daughter) to say that she was going to have a Valentine present delivered to our home around 7 p.m. She also said that she wanted my mother and my sister to be there to receive theirs. So I decided to have dinner since we would have a house full. I couldn't imagine what she was having delivered since I am not a big Valentine Day gift giving person since my children are older. So around 7 p.m. the doorbell rang and there were three bunches of red roses and 3 boxes of chocolate placed on the front door mat. I thought to myself, did she have everyone come here for this??? I know that was rude of me, but I just thought it never really said it! Within seconds of us all standing at the door and saying "oh this is nice", Tyler(who was suppose to be in Iraq) surprised us with his 2 week leave. There was much shouting and some tears going on! Tyler didn't tell anyone until he landed in Houston and called Tara to help arrange it all! You can imagine how surprise we all were. His leave was to be in May for his twin sisters high school graduation but too many people asked for May so he moved it to valentines day! It was a great night had by all. Excuse the pictures, I was not dresses for the occasion, my house was not clean, Annabel in her jammies, etc. The important thing was we were all together....
P. S. Annabel is doing well and has slept well for two nights. Seems to be more comfortable today. Thank you, Jesus!

Valentine Surprise...

I will be back tomorrow to post my Valentine Surprise. I need to get the video and the pictures to post. I promise for anyone who is a mother you will understand how amazing this surprise was to me. So hopefully by tomorrow evening I can get this together.

Annabel is doing ok. Still having problems with low oxygen level during even with her oxygen. Praying that this is due to something like mucous in her airway and that soon this will clear. She had a great night last night and so did Mama!

HOME...

Annabel adores Dr. B and so do we!

We are home and so happy. She did have a pretty nasty UTI that was sensitive to only one antibiotic. We are able to continue this at home in her g-tube. She had a fairly good night last night and was in such a good mood today. She was still having to have the deep suction up until we were leaving. It is still so thick and she just isn't getting it up and out. She will still need some oxygen while awake but not near as much or as constant. I am going to have to step up to the plate and do this deep suction. I am sure like everything else once I have done it and become confident it will be nothing to do.

In case you notice that your comments don't appear right away, I have it set up that they come to my email first, then I publish them. I have not had any ugly comments and for this I am thankful, but have had some weird, I think advertising type, cryptic comments. They always appear on older comments and I have to track back so hoping this doesn't affect me getting any of your comments. If it doesn't allow anonymous commenters that sign your name please let me know. I don't want to make it so you can't comment. Thank you to all who have prayed us home once again.

As you can see Dr. B and her beautiful smile took care of us most of the days. We did have Dr. R for a couple days and he was so nice and caring, thank you Dr. R. The doctor in the picture with Dr. B was making rounds the last two days with her and I can't for the life of me remember her name. But hey, that is how my mind is these day. She was so nice to let us take her picture also.

Not going home today...

We thought we might get out today, but she is still needing oxygen during the day. Also, her urine is growing bug and they haven't identified what it responds to yet. They have her on two antibiotics and not looking like she is responding to them. Her belly has reared its ugly head again and she is very distended and uncomfortable. Yesterday she was playful and appeared comfortable most of the time. Not a good night and definitely not a good day. Sorry for not much information, but hoping that we know more tomorrow and if so maybe get out soon. Thank you for your continued prayers.

Quick update...

Her breathing and use of less oxygen is better. That was my concern and prayer. She had a terrible night because of her tummy the most. That is so fixable and something we can deal with and know the causes. Again thank you for prayers and will post more later. Actually had some clapping and prayers briefly this morning. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all and for answered prayers.

Still not really sure of anything....

I know I need to make a post, but I really don't know much. She had a very rough night. Yesterday evening we had some smiles and I always look for upswings in her behavior to give hope that we are on the right meds or that the diagnosis make sense. Annabel become very uncomfortable around 1:30 a.m. So I felt like I needed to hold her. I let her lay on my chest to sleep and of course she alarmed almost continuously. She stayed fairly uncomfortable until around 5 a.m. Dr. R came by who is with Dr. B. We absolutely love, cherish and adore Dr. B but you really can't go wrong in this practice. So today was Dr. R's day for rounds. Seems everyone is agreement this is an airway issue. So along with her two meds for breathing treatments he added another one to be given every two hours to target her airway. He also began a steroid to target anything going on in the airway. He upped her oxygen since nothing was enough during the night. He ordered cultures to be done on urine.

So today she has basically slept through the day which maybe what her little body needed. She was on 4 liters of oxygen and still alarming too much while asleep. When she is awake she is on 3 liter of oxygen, even though when well doesn't require oxygen. They are having to deep suction and everything is so thick. Tonight I had to return home to get her Robinul to begin to see if we can thin her mucous. Yesterday her white count was up, but not really much in urine. Tonight her white count is down some but the urine is up.

My prayer is that tomorrow there will be more interaction with us. That she will want to be held and not tire so easy. That her oxygen needs will decrease especially when awake. The picture is not the best but basically that describes her day. Hoping to post something positive tomorrow.

There were some new visitors today who either commented or emailed me and I just wanted to say thank you that offer words of hope and prayers for Annabel. I will try to post something earlier tomorrow.

Prayer Request...

I have just come home to pack some things to bring back to the hospital. We had to admit Annabel this morning early with airway problems. We know more of what it is NOT, like it is NOT pneumonia, NOT RSV, NOT Flu, NOT UTI's. Her white count is up and she is really struggling with something in her airway. The gave her Rocephin (antibiotic) and she is moving around this evening. Her tummy is huge and they believe this is due to all the air she is taking in. They have her in a tent with oxygen. When we open it or bring her out her O2 levels drop. Normally, this usually happens when sleeping but today it has been most of the day and night. Thank you in advance for prayers and I will keep you posted as we know more. Let me not close without say that we are so appreciative of the good times that Annabel has been experiencing. In case, I haven't said this lately I really don't like this Trisomy 18 thing!!!