Finally!

Olivia is back to her usual happy, smiling self these days. She has a new addition to her smile though! Yes, she finally got her first tooth yesterday! You can see in the picture I added that the two next to it look ready to pop through too. There is also one on top that looks ready to come through. Enjoy the photos!

OK, so I guess the tooth looks more like the flash glaring off her gums, but you get the idea!

Olivia loves our cats. I expected Sweetie to be afraid of her and Lily, our other cat to like her. It's quite the opposite! Sweetie comes and lays by Olivia often and is to tolerant of her!

This is what I found when I went to get Olivia from her nap! SO HAPPY!

Going Home!

WE'RE GOING HOME TODAY! The doctors feel that Olivia is well enough to go home today. She is really back to her old self. She has been playing in her crib all day and has even eaten a little from a bottle. She smiled at me a couple of times too! Boy have I missed that! Hopefully we'll get more of those once we're at home! Olivia will go home on antibiotics, but no other additional medications that she wasn't already on. We met with GI, which seemed like a waste of time because they just told us to continue on the course we're on. We will meet with Olivia's regular GI doctor next week. Next post will be from home! YAY!!!

Happy Wednesday!

Today has been a good and productive day for Olivia. Yesterday they discontinued her IV antibiotics, but didn't start any oral. Today the pulmonologist ordered oral antibiotics because she was afraid that she got better so quickly because of the IV antibiotics and didn't want her to have a major setback from just stopping them so suddenly. They have discontinued the steroid so she was able to have her IV removed. This made her very happy as she can now use both hands. She even played a little more today and cracked a small almost-smile. The pulmonologist is fairly certain that this was pneumonia caused by Olivia aspirating her own vomit. The vomiting is an issue that we have been raising since October, so it is nice that it is finally being addressed. A GI doctor is going to stop by tomorrow to take a look at Olivia and discuss some possibilities. There is a test that they can do that will tell them how bad her reflux really is. If it's bad enough they may consider a nissen. This would require surgery, and would make it less likely if not impossible to vomit. It is quite possible that the reflux is why Olivia isn't eating well also. They are also trying to get Olivia back on her regular feeding routine so that it is easier to transition back to home. They currently have her on 0.4 liters of oxygen. At home she is on 0.3 liters so she is almost back to where she was. YAY! As I write this Olivia is laying in her crib playing with a rattle and having a good time! What a big change from just a few days ago!

Tuesday Update

So today the urinalysis came back negative. This means that there are no bacterial infections that they can find. They plan to recheck the With that, they discontinued her IV antibiotics today. They also cut Olivia's steroids in half today. She is still just getting feedings from a pump through her G-tube. Her blood pressures have been high from the steriods and being sick so they have had to give Olivia a second blood pressure medication to keep these in check. They have been trying to ween the oxygen and the flow, but Olivia hasn't been tolerating that very well. Tonight they are going to try to just decrease the flow and see how well Olivia tolerates that. One thing that has been concerning Joe and I is that Olivia's heartrate has been dipping down quite low at times. This happens mostly when she is sleeping, but has dipped as low as 58. We have asked about possibly having an echocardiogram done since her heartrate has been dipping and her blood pressure has been so high. The doctor tonight said that if her heartrate keeps dipping they may consider an EKG. We still have no idea when we'll be able to go home, but Olivia definitely seems much better today. She actually showed interest in her toys today, and played a little bit. No smiles yet, but I am sure they are coming back soon.