Maddie‘s recovery continues and she’s made progress in many areas the last two days.  She’s able to play with both hands (and even her feet!), she’s smiled a few more times to Jen, and the physical therapist has been able to get her to sit up by herself, albeit for just a few minutes.  They are weaning more of the medications and she’s starting to interact with us more.  Her milestones for recovery are going to take longer now that she’s out of immediate danger so her daily progress reports aren’t going to vary much.

One area of concern that is keeping her from being downgraded to a recovery room is over chylous output from her chest tubes.  It has to do with her lymphatic system and not being able to handle too much feeding, which they have been forced to stop even by feeding tube.  The surgeon wants to monitor it for a few more days and then start slowly giving her breastmilk through the tube on Monday.  The doctors are also considering a transfer back to Inova for the next stage of her care.  They are considerate towards our commute but also want to be absolutely sure that none of their specialized equipment and staff are needed.

Bill is spending most of the days taking care of Abby before and after daycare and commuting to and from the hospital while Jen stays with Maddie in the CICU at Children’s National in DC.  Her presence helps Maddie stay calm during the dozens of different checkups/procedures/evaluations/tests that have to be performed each day.  Since the nurses and doctors change every 12 hours, she is also the one who everyone turns to for information about the more intangible aspects of Maddie‘s recovery; things like her mood, perkiness, irritability, etc.  As the doctors said, reams of numbers may not be as good as the parents’ sense of how well she’s doing.

We’d like to thank everyone again for all the prayers and for keeping us in your thoughts.  Please continue to pray for her be able to start feeding tubes again, for the doctors/hospitals/insurance companies to decide a good time for us to transfer back to Fairfax, and for strength and rest for Jen as she stays with Maddie in a hectic and stressful environment.

God is great.

Bill, Jen, Abby, Maddie