Day 1173

We are on Day 8 of being in the PICU of Children's. Ava's doing a bit better but she still is breathing harder than normal. We are hoping to get her off the nasal cannula flow tomorrow and go straight to O2.

I was able to sleep at home last night for the first time since Ava has been at the hospital. It was heaven! Her sister's though are very upset at not having Ava home with her. They keep looking at videos and photos of her and they are extremely sensitive.

She finally pooped today after a couple of days. She also needs to drink more so she doesn't need to get more IV fluids. She is eating a significant amount of food though. Everyone is amazed by how happy she is and how she lets people suction her nose or give her chest pt. Please pray we can get home this week and that Ava's lungs grow strong and she stops belly breathing.

Thanking God for Ava's life and praying that Ava's lungs grow strong and healthy...

Blue

Ava has been sick this week after getting a bug from her sisters. She was needing albuterol every 4 hours and was sleeping in later in the morning. This am I was starting to get nervous but I knew she slept in later yesterday morning, so I decided to go in and check on her. I walked in and she was laying at the end of her crib barely breathing and could barely move her head. Anthony had just went to the store and I couldn't get a hold of him. I ran downstairs and quickly grabbed her nebulizer to give her albuterol. Unfortunately nothing was helping and we don't have any oxygen in the house anymore. Anthony came home and quickly called 911. After waiting about 20 minutes the ambulance finally showed up. Ariana sadly asked if Ava was going to die. That made me so sad. I can't imagine what her sisters would do without Ava. My parents came for the girls and Anthony went to the hospital while the ambulance took a whole hour to get to the hospital despite that we are 45 minutes away. Ava looked better with the oxygen but her breath rate was extremely high and they were fearful she would need a ventilator. We were brought into the ER, they assessed her and about and hour later were put into the ICU. We couldn't find out what could possibly be harming her that much. They kept describing it as her lungs were so bad. After a couple of days we found out she had HMV (Human metapneumovirus) which is worse than RSV. It can put a normal set of lungs into the hospital. We didn't end up needing a vent but she did have this turtle shaped external vent on her for a day.

Thanking God for Ava's life and praying for her lungs to get better...