Back in Hospital (August 31)

Dani Jo went back to Brenner's yesterday afternoon. She had not been eating well for a few days and her belly was beginning to swell a lot. They did some tests on her last night and discovered that she has what is called a "stricture." Basically what has happened is that when they reversed her colostomy in April, scar tissue has developed where her intestines were sewn together. This tissue has grown together to cause a narrowing and closing in her intestines. Her belly had become swollen because of a backup of gas and bowel movement. The drs. have made progress since she came in yesterday. They initially thought they may have to do surgery to open the stricture; however, the doctor this morning made great progress widening the stricture. She has had a very stressful morning while they attempt to widen the stricture. They take a metal probe and insert it several inches into her intestines rectally and gradually increase the size of the probe until the stricture is widened back to normal size. They are about half way to normal size right now, but can only do so much per day to prevent bleeding. The hope is that they will have it completed by Tuesday or Wednesday so that her bowels can function properly. That's about all we know right now. She is still doing well with her breathing, typically using the vent when sleeping only. She is growing up too fast. I can't believe she will be a year old in 6 weeks. She has learned how to sign "Mommy" and "Daddy" since she can't speak right now. There is nothing like hearing your little baby say "Daddy" for the first time; but I don't think anything could top seeing her sign it for the first time. Thank you all for your continued prayers for Dani Jo and our family. Hope to post more soon.

God bless you all,

Joey

Hello Everyone!

Pictures from Tony (my brother-in-law's birthday)

We have to say that the past month has been very busy for my family. Sorry for the long delay in updating our website.

Dani Jo is doing wonderful! She went for her follow-up swallow study and passed! This means we are now starting to give her baby food! YEA! She is doing really well with it so far. It is a slow process, but if she continues to do well with the food, then we will eventually be able to take her feeding tube completely out! It may be a few months, but we are slowly working on it.

We had to take all 3 girls to the doctor yesterday! WOW what an eventful day it was. Dani Jo has an abscess next to her feeding tube and it had to be cultured. We find out tomorrow the results of the test. We are praying that it is nothing. Jamie has been running a 102 temp for 2 days, had to take her to Dr., she has a virus. Jordan has been complaining of a tooth ache, took her to the dentist and they ended up pulling the tooth! It was an eventful day...I had to get a little strength from one of my sister's sayings, "This too shall pass". She always says this and I tease her about it, but I held on to it yesterday. Today is a new day! God is still in control.

God has shown off in Dani Jo since she came home from the hospital the day before Mother's Day. She gets PT and Speech often and has shown signs of improvement.

Dani Jo is 10 months old today--that is wild! I can't believe she will be a year old in 2 months! Time really flies by with your children, so stop and take time with them. Quality Time--I've learned that the cleaning, laundry, housework, etc... will still be there tomorrow, but our children grow up fast and it is worth it to me to spend a little extra time with my beautiful girls.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers and I will try to post soon! Love to you all!

Amanda