Coming Home

Madeline is on her way home now...we are so excited to be together as a family!

Thanks to our family for making our Christmas in the hospital a wonderful day. We enjoyed what matters most...which is being with family. Thanks to all our nurses that take care of Maddie and those that worked on Christmas Day as well.

Uncle Gary's Office

Madeline felt good enough to visit Uncle Garry's office on the 4th floor today. She enjoyed her visit!

Doing Well

Madeline has very little pain today and is doing well. I think we have turned a corner today! We will see what the next day brings and hopefully we can see a light at the end of the tunnel. Merry Christmas everyone!

New Port

Madeline got a new port today and everything went well. She did well with the anesthesia and the new port works good. She is now recovering and watching Polar Express.

The stripping of Madeline's port did not work. The fiberous tissue was too thick to remove. So the next step is to completely remove the existing port and replace it with a new one. Madeline did well with the anesthesia and as always amazes me with her strength.

Madeline's port has not been working properly for a while. It is important that this works for times like these because it allows us access to draw blood and give her fluids without the constant pokes from I.V.s. So it is schedules for Monday to fix her port. This will require some anesthesia.

Thank you to everyone for your love and support. Thank you to the Payton family, Owens family, and my mom and Lee for the gifts for Madeline. Also, thank you again to Angie for the gift to Children's. Thank you to everyone for the encouraging words and help with Ryder. Also, thank you to Eric and Liz for always coming to the hospital and loving Madeline.

Madeline had a little better day...she wanted to take a little walk. She has been up coloring and playing some. Her blood work is normal. Now we are waiting for the tummy pains to go away.

We want to say a great big thank you for a special gift to the young patients of Children's Medical Center in honor of Madeline from Angie Bicknell, Trey's sister. This is the best gift someone can give. Thank you Angie.

Another day

Madeline's pain was off and on today...there were bad moments and tolerable moments. Madeline's bicarb was at a 27 this morning which is great! Her pancreatitis is full blown at the moment and is really hard for her to tolerate. Some good news is 3 of her doctors are going to meet and discuss "how to keep Madeline home more...". I think they are going to try to adjust some of her meds and diet and hope it makes a difference.

Being apart from each other is hard on us especially during the holidays. But there are families that are apart much longer than we are, and we feel our situation is not as bad as it could be.

Back in action

Madeline is back in the hospital with tummy pains. She had a few days of no eating and labored breathing which made us bring her in. Her bicarb was at a 10 (normal for her is 19 or higher) and she was acidontic this time. She has not been acidontic in a while, so we were a little suprised by this.

Her spirits are up and she is worried Santa Clause won't find her here in case we are still here. I assured her this is not the case!

I will try and update everyday.