Two very exciting words.......

I only have two words to say right now......


SHE'S HOME :)

It was a great day in the kingdom......

London has FINALLY been set free after spending 12 days in isolation. Not only was she allowed to leave her room and go explore the hospital today but she was also allowed off of her TPN for a couple of hours today. She was so happy to explore the halls of the hospital. She waved to everyone that we walked by and even blew some lucky people kisses. She was determined to "walk" (meaning she was either holding onto the stroller or scaling the walls). There wasn't anything that I could do to convince her to ride in the stroller. She had tasted freedom and she was taking full advantage of it.

The hospital has this amazing fish tank with all of the characters from Finding Nemo, and she LOVED watching all the fish swim by. She sat in front of it for sometime pointing at the fish. It was a very good today for London today.

It was also a very good day for 2 other friends that she has made while in here. Oliver is a little boy who was across the hall. He has spent a good majority of his 4 years in the hospital. He has what is called, Hollow Visceral Miopathy. There are only 2 other children in Canada with the disorder. This disorder has caused all of his hollow organs (espohegus, bowels, stomach, bladder ect) to become paralyzed. He has very little, if any, motility in those organs. It is truly amazing though to watch him. He is unable to eat very much during the day (because it just doesn't go anywhere), so his mom hooks him up to TPN every night for 14 hours, and the nuishment that he recieves at night is enough to sustain him throughout the whole day. He is the happiest little boy. You would NEVER know that he has had so many struggles in his life by looking at him. Needless to say, Oliver was able to go home today. Yeah Oliver!!!!

Another little girl down the hall also was able to go home today... with some great news too. Madison is 15 and lives in Red Deer. She was admited to the hospital because the doctors thought that she had Crohn's. They did an ultrasound and discovered that her appendix was extremely large. After a straight forward appendectomy she was able to go home without a life changing diagnosis. Yeah for Madison!!!!!!

Count you blessings, name them one by one......

I have never been one who accepts help easily. I like to be able to do things by myself. I am sure that I have made things much for difficult for myself with this way of thinking.... but none the less this is me. It is not that I don't like help, or think that I can do it better myself..... it is that I really don't want to be a burden on anyone. If I have learned one thing from all of this with London, it is that I have started to ask for help. I'm not saying that I am good at it still, but I think that I am more open to it than I have ever been. There have been so many helping hands that I have been so willing. SO many people willing and ready to serve my family. I have said it again and I will say it again..... thank you. Just today Ben opened the front door to find 2... yes I said 2 large coolers full of freezer meals, gift cards and baked goodies dropped off by 2 wonderful ladies from my work. I am beyond touched by this act of kindness. I have not been to work for well over a year and yet these wonderful women that I work with still find time in their busy schedules to care for me and my family. I knew that I worked with special women, but this goes above and beyond. Thank you unit 62 for thinking and caring about us.

I had to post this picture of London. We are still in isolation and so we have not been able to leave our room for many days now. Often during the day time London will point to the door and we will stand in the door way and she will wave to everyone that walks by. Her new trick is that she like to walk over to the door by pushing her IV poll over to it.

She is doing well today. We have started feedings again. She has tolerated them very well. There is talk about starting to wean her TPN (yea), however they still have been increasing her lipids because her weight gain has not been spectacular (surprise, surprise.....).

As it stands today it looks like they will scope her on Tuesday if all continues to go well, and then (I am keeping my fingers crossed) I am hoping that we will be closer to going home.

It's a good day.

I would just like to wish my husband Ben a happy birthday. He turned 32 today. I would laso like to say that he is STILL older than me, even though I will be moving up a year in the next couple of months :)

London has done really good today. She managed to keep all of her pedialyte (15 ml at a time)down today. It was a good day. She seems to be much more energetic. We are still in isolation, but the nurses here brought in some toys for her and a matt for her to play on. She was so happy to sit on the mat. I have ben a bit anal about her getting down on the floor.... (I work in a hospital, I know what ends up on the floor......). she has gained some of her weight back, she is now 12 lbs 3 oz. We are hoping that we may be able to start a bit of diluted formula tomorrow. I feel like things are really starting to head in the right direction. It is still a waiting game, and only time will tell, but I am really feeling good about things right now.

I am so grateful for everyone that we are surrounded by. We have been so blessed and have felt so much love, not only from our friends, but our co-workers, complete strangers and medical staff. London made a little friend that was in the room across the hall from her. His name is Tyler and he is 12 years old. He was sent to Calgary from Fort McLeod for observation. He went down stairs last night with his parents to play bingo and brought a stuffy that he had won and gave it to London. It was so sweet. He said that he wanted her to have it because she didn't get to go downstairs and play bingo. I was so touched. Flowers keep appearing in London's room from co-workers of Ben. I am in awe over the kindness of these people that London, nor I know. Thank you everyone. Dinners have been prepared and brought to my family while I have been away, play dates have been arranged for my children, my mom has spent countless hours sitting with London so that I can spend some time with my other children, and even more time taking care of them so that I can be at the hospital. We have felt the strength provided by all the prayers that have been said on our behalf. From the bottom of my heart... thank you all.

Ben brought Bailee and Lincoln up to the hopsital the other day to visit with London. The kids had just recieved their report cards and let me tell you.... I have 2 very smart kiddos. I am one very proud mamma. We try to celebrate their report cards (weather good or bad), and so I decided that while I had Ben at the hospital that he could sit and cuddle with London (tough job I know... it took a lot of convincing.....) I would take Bailee and Lincoln out to celebrate their report cards. Just the day before a friend of mine informed me that their was a Cobbs bakery just around the corner from the hospital (for you that live in Calgary, if you have never heard of Cobbs bakery before, may I say, that you are really missing out. I discovered it while I had Lincoln in a Co-op preschool with some friends and we went there for one of our field trip.... they allowed the kids to go into the back and make their own goodies). Needless to say their products are so yummy. With out treats in hand we headed to Chapters and they each were able to pick out a couple of books of their choice (I'm sure some of you will think that this kind of gift is really lame... but my kids LOVE to read). I also decided that since we were so close that we would go up and see the new temple that is being built in Calgary. The kids were so excited to see Moroni on top. It was a great day. I loved the time I was able to spend with them.

So update on London. They still have her on TPN. The doctor says that she will probably be on it until the end of the week. She is starting to perk up a little bit in the morning, which is really nice to see. They still have us on isolation, because of her positive Rtoavirus... which really sucks. And she hasn't pooped because she doesn't have anything in her tummy, which means they can't re-test it to see if she is over it... so in isolation we stay.
We had a bit of a scare today with her PICC line..again. One of her ports had come undone and I did not realize it. I had walked over the othe other side of her room to grab something and when I looked back we had a trail of blood splatter all over the floor, their was blood driping on me and her. It looked like a scene out of a horror story. I'm glad to say that it was an easy fix, but no the less scary.
So it sounds like we have a bit of a set back today. They have been testing her blood levels every moring, and this morning her Cholestrol levels were extremely high. They stopped her lipids (which is just straight fat) and said that they will test her levels again tomorrow and see if maybe we can start the lipids again. The setback is that they will need to start them at the rate they started them on Saturday.
We all know that London has had a difficult time with weight gain.. that is not a secret. But since she has been in hospital, she has lost a whole pound. Today she weighs 11 lbs 12 oz. Without her lipids and without any food, she will continue to loose weight..... Which is a battle that we will continue to fight for a long time I guess.
I got the okay from the doctor to try some pedialyte with her today. I was super excited to give something to her. She took it great... and then puked it back up. Looks like it is going to take us a while to work her up to any sustainable amount of food.

Poor little London

So I would like to say that London's puking ended last week and that she had a fabulous birthday...but that would be stretching the truth...okay, that would be a flat out lie. Truth is she is still sick. Her and I got to celebrate her 1st birthday in the ER at the Alberta Children's Hospital. And we have been here ever since. London could not keep anything down, and what she was able to keep down went right through her and out the other end. I felt so bad for her. I have been watching her get weaker and sicker by the minute. My little, smily, happy and bright eyed baby has turned into a weak, sleepy, lethargic sick little girl. The doctors said that she has Rotavirus, which is a gastrointestinal virus, but because her little body is so comprimised already it is hitting her very hard. So hard infact that they think that her intestines are extremely damaged.

After 2 plus days of trying to get food into her and keep it in her, the doctors decided to put a PICC line in. It is like a really long IV that threads from your arm all the way to your heart. They have stopped trying to feed her all together to try and let her intestines rest, and have started her on TPN, which is like a liquid form of food that they administer through her PICC line. They started that yesterday at about 6, after a bit of a scare with her newly placed PICC line. I had just settled her and she was just drifting off to sleep and I thought that I would run downstairs quickly and grab a bite to eat. That was when I noticed the blood pooling and driping from her PICC line dressing. I paniced a bit. I know that the site can bleed slightly at first, but this was a bit exessive. I called her nurse and immediately we had 6 other nurses in the room, one yelling to get the doctor, another yelling for gauze, another for pressure on the site..... needless to say it was a bit chaotic. After some pressure and repositioning they managed to get the bleeding under control and rebanaged her little arm with an additional pressure dressing (just incase). Once the dust had settled a bit and we were confident that her line was still okay to use, they started the TPN.

I was really hoping that she might perk up a bit after a couple hours on the TPN. No such luck though. My baby who normally doesnt take a nap until 3pm (after being up all day) has now fallen asleep twice and it is only 10 am.

I feel totally helpless as her mother, knowing that there is absolutely nothing physically that I can do to make her better. It is just a matter of time. I know though that she will get better. We have so many good friends and family that are praying for her and have been for quite some time. I am so grateful for you all. I have felt your strength. I appreciate your help with my other children. I am grateful for the meals, the visits and the phone calls and texts asking, and making sure that we are doing okay. I am so beyond grateful for Ben and for him doing a great job holding down the fort with our four other children, so that I can be here with London. Mom, you are amazing. You have helped us out so much. I am so blessed. Thank you everyone.

Birthday's galore

March is a month filled with birthdays. We started the month with my mom's birthday. The kids worked very hard on her birthday present for her. They made her, her very own snow man. He has now since melted but they were so proud and excited to show her what they had done.

Our little peanut, London doesn't turn 1 until Tuesday, but we thought that today would be a great day to celebrate it (the weeks days get really busy with gymnastics, activity days, piano ect). Unfortunately London wasn't so into the whole celebration mood, and spent the party throwing up and sleeping. Poor London. But before it all got the best of her, we were able to snap a couple of pics of her in her birthday princess attire.

Her she is on daddy's lap. We knew she wasn't feeling good when she cuddled right into daddy ( she's a bit of a mama's girl... she loves her daddy too though).

I made mini cupcakes for our minitaure sized London. They were yummy. Don't worry we saved some for London. She will get her's when she is feeling better.

One of the rare smiles that we were able to get out of her today. Grandma bought her a London sized stool. She loves it. She can almost sit on it and have her feel touch the gorund :) And her stroller from mom and dad.

Happy birthday London. Mommy and daddy love you so much.

Oh the things that he says

These are plates that Ben brought back from his mission in Puebla Mexico. They have been sitting in our prount closet for several years now. I finally decided to clean out the disaster that has formed in the closet over the last couple of years and pulled these out. Jackson discovered them and immediately clung to them. I couldn;t quite figure out what was so interesting about them, but he was very protective of them. He would not let anyone come close to them and barely let the other kids look at them. That night as I was getting dinner easy, Jackson climbed up to the island where I was working, plates in hand. As I watched him, he bowed his head and folded his arms and then porceded to give the most sincere prayer any 4 year old could give...."We are so thankfun our dear Heavenly Father for these golden plates of Nephi. Please watch over them and protect them so that the bad guys won;t take them form us and we can have them forever. Amen". I bet you can imagine what I did....yep I smiled, and very big proud smile. Yes they were golden plates and I am so proud of him for connecting the two seemingly unrelated sets of golden plates together.

I took the kids to the zoo today. It was so much fun. They have a new penguin exhbit. It was AMAZING. I could have sat there all day and watched them. They are the neatest animals. I think that the kids could have sat there all day too. But sadly we were only allowed 15 minutes in the exhibit to accomadate for everyone else who loved the penguins too.