A,B,C,D and Kylie

    I liked scantron tests.  Do you all remember those tests in high school.  You get that gray computer sheet with all the bubbles.  You always had to make sure that you had a number 2 pencil, the bubble was completely filled in, and that you erased well enough so that the computer didn't accidentally mistake that erase for an answer.  Just what I need a little panic with my test anxiety, woohoo!  I liked the multiple choice aspect of it though.  I am a relatively smart individual, shhh don't tell anyone it would wreck my reputation but it is nice to see your possible answers and knew that some where in those four choices you had the right answer.  Though, I have to be honest, sometimes I chose an answer with the phrase "Well, I haven't had C in a while..."  Hey, don't judge me I got through high school and got me a good edumancation, I am very smert ;-).
     Kylie on the other hand, hates scantron, she doesn't like to be told how she is supposed to act.  She is the type of person that when given A, B, C, or D she would write in "E" and then circle that. Now you may ask how do I know this?  I mean Ron, you would say, she never has had to take a multiple choice test, how can you make such an assumption.  Well, I would reply, lets look at her life.  When she was two weeks old, the doctors gave her an hour left to live and had counted her out, well she is still here.  At two months old, she had a stroke that affected of a fourth of her brain, should have left her as a vegetable.  Well, now she is an active two year old.  Now I know it is God's hand working in my daughter's life.  But my daughter has always refused to be pigeoned holed in to anything.  There has been AT LEAST four different times where the doctors don't know how she did it, but she did it.  It's a running joke among our medical staff that Kylie will do what she wants and they will try and keep up.
    This stay is not any different.  They have ideas on what may be causing all of the fluid build up but they aren't sure.  We did a sedated ECHO on Monday, so they could get a better look at her heart, to see if her fenestration had closed.  Well, like we thought, it had.  Well, that would be the most likely reason why all the fluid is collecting.  The relief valve is no longer working, so the heart is working harder, which produces the fluid, which causes the problem.  There are two issues with this though, one is the fact that they are not sure how the fluid is making it into the abdomen.  It would make more sense for it to collect everywhere and not just in her belly..  It would be in the arms, face, legs, chest, and stomach.  It just doesn't fit.  Second, if the fenestration closed, the thought would be WHY did it close?  If it were being used, the blood would be pumping through the hole and that would have forced it open, and not given it the chance to close.  So they are not sure where the fluid is coming from and why the fluid is going where it is.  They have ideas but nothing fits, perfectly, into it.  The plan is to do a heart cath on Monday, to get a better look at the function of the heart, the pressures of the heart and to open the fenestration again, if needed.  We have to wait, until the antibiotic course has finished because, if there is E.Coli in the fluid in her abdomen, they don't want to introduce it  into the blood stream.  The antibiotics are done on Saturday and then give her two days, to make sure there is no infection and then we are on to the next step.  The earliest we will get out of here is middle of next week, but we are determined to find the answers.
     So the rest of this week, is going to be rather boring, I don't mind (o.k. maybe I mind alittle...I am really not a patient guy :-).  We will continue her diuretics and her antibiotics, and let her rest.  We want the bacteria and fluid out of her system.  It looks good so far, she is not sick and she has urinated over a pound of fluid.  So I am back at work and Kylie and Aubrey are staying up at U of M.  All I can say is there is a definite reason why I got married, I like having my family with me, but this is what is going to get my daughter healthy, so I will do it, sometimes complaining, but I will do it.  Please be praying for some friends of ours, first, our roommate who is where we were in January.  She is done with her third surgery and just waiting for the tubes to stop draining.  She sprouted a 104 fever last night, so they are watching her very closely.  Also, please be praying for some friends of our's little girl Katie.  She has a really bad urinary reflux that has gotten her quite sick.  She is on the mend but will need surgery in the future, which is always a stressful situation.  Thanks to all of you for your continued support.  You always remind us that we are not doing this by ourselves.