Seeing a little bit of the old her

We brought Gabby to the New Orleans aquarium the weekend prior to leaving for Cincinnati.

Yesterday was a pretty good day for the most part. We have been seeing the "old" Gabrielle more and more each day. She is starting to talk and smile a little more each day. We don't have much to report, which is a good thing! According to all the doctors she is healing up nicely. Her incision on her belly is really looking good. Bart and and the nurses have been cleaning her ex-fix pin sites twice a day everyday. This is of course to prevent infection and to make sure the drainage doesn't sit on her skin and cause irritation. Gabby has gone from having 4 drains to 3. The plastic surgeons pulled their drainage tube on the 7 day mark and the whole that remained behind is already starting to heal. The other 3 drains are from her 2 kidneys and from her bladder. Hopefully in the week coming ahead we will get rid of the two coming from her kidneys. Dr. Alam has decided to leave her on TPN and lipids over the weekend and the NG tube will be placed Monday. We have not given up on feeding her but we have resigned to the fact that this may be the best option. Praying it will only be for a very short while. She did have another incident of throwing up yesterday. We talked to Dr. Alam about the fact that maybe her stomach is being compressed by the new pressure in her body and he said that could definitely have an affect on things. He also said that it could be an intestinal issue. As these children have surgeries over and over again and their intestines are constantly moved and manipulated they sometimes become lax and distended, not working as well as they once did. When she has her ex-fix removed they will perform a test on her body to see how well food moves through her system from her mouth all the way to exiting the bowel. This will tell us if we should start doing irrigations on her bowel once we are home. So currently we are still trying to give her food and liquids until the NG is placed and then go from there. We have started bringing her on wagon rides each day and yesterday she spent the afternoon on the coach that Bart and I sleep on. Last night was another restless night filled with a little pain and nurses in and out of the room all night. For now we are happy to hang out with our two little ones and get some bonding time until we get out of this tiny room and big hospital. I personally see better days ahead already!

Thank you all for your continued prayers. Bart and I know that is why Gabby is healing so well because we all have prayed for the ultimate healer to lay his hands on her.