Abby just informed me that I forgot to do a post after clinic last week and that I needed to get on that, so here goes..........
We did go to clinic last Monday. Abby and I both felt like her blood counts were still going to be low and that they would have to do something about it, so we packed our bags for more than just one day (we always do this, but this time we were more serious about it.) Abby's echo looked great...that is always a huge relief, but her labs came back with low blood counts, both white and red, again. Because they had slightly increased from the previous lab draw, Dr. E told us that we weren't going to do anything to treat it, we were just going to keep our eye on it. Abby will have another lab draw the beginning of March and we'll keep our fingers crossed that things have turned around. Abby doesn't have to be on house arrest, she just needs to be extra careful. Lots of sanitizer and hand washing. I think we both almost fell off our chairs when Dr. E said that if things look good with the lab draw in March, we won't have to go back for clinic until April!! Almost 2 months, that is our record for sure. I think that the longest amount of time that Abby has gone between visits is 6 weeks. We were out of clinic and back on the road to St. George by 10:00, it was awesome.
So, this past week Abby had the okay to go to school, the problem was that she didn't have the energy to go. I think it was because she's anemic, but I don't really know. She went a couple of days in the morning, but that was it. The other problem was that they took Abby off of one of her blood pressure meds to see if it would help bring her white blood count up. But, the day she went off of it and every day she wasn't taking it, her feet and legs would turn red and get swollen and really hot again. They were hurting her so bad that she couldn't walk very well, and it was very uncomfortable. When we were at clinic, Dr. E decided that we had to put her right back on that med, but it took 5 days of taking it to get the swelling to go down. Weird, I know. It's baffled all of the doctors. It's just a weird problem that Abby has that has no known cause. Luckily, the past couple of days has been better. The plan for tomorrow is for Abby to finally go back to school! Yahoo!! That will make everybody happier.
One funny thing about school that happened a couple of weeks ago was that we met with her teachers and school counselor to officially write up Abby's 504 education plan. We talked about some things that we could do to help Abby if she needs it, and the counselor asked about her being able to participate in PE. I told them that Abby was completely able to go to PE classes, but I guess that the teachers are too nervous to have her in their class. I guess it would be pretty scary since her heart did stop beating and she collapsed in PE and people just don't know what people with a heart transplant are capable of doing. They also mentioned that the other kids were probably still pretty shaken up as well and it could scare them too. Many of them were in the gym when Abby collapsed and they saw her on the floor getting CPR. So, for now, unless we find a gutsy PE teacher, Abby is exempt from taking gym classes at school. Abby said that she didn't care about that, but I have mixed feelings. Since it's such a little thing, I'm just going to let it go. It really doesn't matter as long as it doesn't make Abby feel different.
Other than that, things are good. We had a sweet 3-day weekend full of lots of friends and family and fun. I wish we could have a long weekend every week! The weather in St. George is finally starting to feel like spring. I can't wait until it's hot down here, I love it! Brock had another appointment with the surgeon that fixed his ankle and he said that things are looking good, he's even ahead of schedule. He's already started getting ready for football next year. My book is written and edited and ready to be published, I'm just trying to figure out who to send it to and how to go about taking the next step. It will happen, it's just taking me some time. We're all looking forward to spring break in March, and Hawaii the end of May. Things always look brighter when you have something to look forward to :)
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