Abby's Journey Archive

Today was a pretty good day. It started off rocky, Abby was quite unhappy in the morning. Everything seemed to hurt, or wasn't right, or was uncomfortable.

As the day wore on we began to get a better handle on when she needed pain meds. She got the Foley out (boy she didn't like that), and we saw Dr. Shafron in the early afternoon. He said she was doing very well. He checked her left side and her peripheral vision and both look really good. Thank God! That is such a huge praise for us, given the amount of brain tissue she had removed. Further assessment will reveal if she has any greater impairment than that from the first surgery, but God has clearly blessed us greatly.

Dr. Shafron gave her permission to get up, so in no time we had her out of bed. She used the bathroom, and we gave her a sponge bath in the chair next to her bed. We even took a walk around the unit down to the little galley they have at the end of the hall for a "treat" (saltine crackers). Her balance is a little off, but we had to ask her to slow down!

Dr. Shafron says tomorrow he will remove the drain. Please pray for that procedure. They will provide some sedation but she will not be asleep. He needs to remove one stitch, then remove the drain, then stitch the drain insertion point back up with one or two stitches.

If the drain removal happens early enough in the day we will try to gather the rest of the family up and take them to visit Abby either at the froggy playground or in the pediatric playroom at the hospital. It is touching how much all the kids miss each other when she is in the hospital. Abby is particularly missing Josiah. She told Amy tonight that she was sad because everybody was home and she was not.

Dr. Shafron also wants Abby to have another MRI on Monday. He is going to ask the MRI techs if they can just do the one scan sequence that gives him what he needs. If they can do just that sequence then it should only take 10 or 15 minutes and she should be able to be awake. Please pray for her in that, she was quite apprehensive about doing another MRI without being "asleep" after her claustrophobia episode yesterday.

Thanks again for all the prayers. We're optimistic we can get home soon.