Skip to main content

Ashley has Blood in her Stool

Not the topic of choice for the blog but it is what we are dealing with now. However, we think the blood in her stool is from constipation and not related to her liver disease. Since we think the cause is constipation we increased her dose of Miralax and made her drink that nasty concoction in 5 minutes. We are hoping that increasing her dose of Miralax plus forcing her to drink more fluids will clean out her system. Only time well tell.

Ashley is not one to drink, although she loves chocolate milk; not exactly the drink of choice when you are constipated. She loves food and would rather eat than drink. But her lack of love for fluids; I think, is causing her constant constipation. If anyone has any ideas on how to get Ashley to drink anything but chocolate milk and sodas, please let me know. I am on the verge of sticking an IV in her arm or maybe I can purchase one of those drink hats.

Of course, we would need to replace those Coke cans with bottles of water. Maybe Ashley would drink more water if she was forced to wear this funny hat. Hmmm...could work.

On the liver front, Ashley is scheduled to go to Shands on Good Friday, April 10. Right now, she is scheduled to go to the liver clinic only but she may also require an ultrasound. Actually, I am going to recommend that she have an ultrasound due to her bloody stool episodes these past few months. During this appointment, I want to plan her next visit to Shands for an MRI and possibly an upper and lower endoscopy this summer. Also on tap to discuss during this visit is Ashley's physical activity restrictions for the next school year.

Ashley will be in 6th grade next year and will be required to dress out for PE for one semester. However, most of the activity in PE is contact sports, basketball, soccer, flag football, etc. These are activities that Ashley cannot participant in due to her enlarged spleen and her low platelet count. With the amount of contact involved in the PE activities, I am not sure it's safe for Ashley to take PE. However, I will discuss this will her liver doctor while we are at the liver clinic. My hope is that if Ashley's doc says "No" to PE that the school will either allow her to take an elective in place of PE and accept her 6 plus hours of dance a week as a PE credit.

Ashley starting middle school brings a whole new set of worries and concerns.

Are you ready for some good news?

Ashley made straight A's on her report card. She made straight A's despite the fact that she missed 20 days out of 47 in this grading period. I am so proud of her; she worked hard and deserves all the praise I can give her.

Are you ready for more good news?

I finally got a job. It's not much but in this struggling economy I am blessed to have it. It's perfect hours, I work 4 hours a day while the kids are in school and the pay is decent. I have my own office and I am doing what I love, managing a church website, designing bulletins, newsletters, etc. God has certainly blessed me with this job and I am grateful.

Can you stand more good news?

We finally paid off our car loan!

Things are finally looking good for this family. After several years of bad luck, we are finally seeing the light at the end of this very long and dreary tunnel. I pray that I am not jinxing things by sharing our good fortune here on this blog. I owe everything to God. He has been carrying me for so long, holding me in his hands and I have had faith that He will take care of me.

My faith in Him continues....

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ashley's Story

“Although Ashley’s liver is failing, she isn’t sick enough to be placed on the liver transplant list. We were told that Ashley would need a new liver by the time she reaches puberty." Ashley was born at the end of July in 1998, but her story doesn’t start there;her story begins when she was just a little peanut in my womb. At 24 weeks gestation we learned we were having a girl, but our little girl had something wrong with her. Imagine sitting in the examining room, and the excitement of learning you are having a girl, then at the same time you hear the silence in the room when something is just not right with the baby. We were told that Ashley possibly had an ovarian cyst. It was normal and not to worry. But something told us it was more than just an ovarian cyst. As soon as Ashley was delivered she struggled to live. The umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck twice, and she was blue. Thankfully the doctor cut the cord immediately and although Ashley was still blue; she was b
7 comments
Read more

Answers lead to more Questions

In great Ashley fashion, she did very well with her trip to the hospital and recovered well from the procedure. Right now, Ashley is off with her Grammie getting spoiled by shopping. With no one in the house but me and the pets, I am off to my own devices which usually means I have to much time to think, to research, to worry, to vent, to hope and to pray. Today Ashley had a broncioscope to find out why she has been coughing for six months. After getting up at 4:30 am and at the hospital at 6 am, the scope began at approximately 7:30 am. The procedure itself took less than 30 minutes. The outcome of the procedure left me with more questions than answers. We do know why Ashley is coughing, Ashley has a vocal cord dysfunction, enlarged adnenoids and tonsils. Finding out why Ashley is coughing is good news, however, we also learned that Ashley may have other issues involving her lungs. There was 60mL of fluid in her lungs. Some samples of her lungs were sent for a cell count, bacterial cu
3 comments
Read more

It's been a while. Did you know...

that Ashley was in the hospital  after Thanksgiving and before Christmas?  She had a bleed. She has varices.  Just a little reminder that she is not healthy and has a life threatening liver disease. that we lost our beloved beautiful puppy, Sarge, on January 2.  It was sudden, shocking, and sad.  We think he had leukemia based on his symptoms.  Not sure if we will ever get another dog.  Sarge was one of a kind and a perfect fit for our laid back, drama free family. that Ashley made the Principal's Honor Roll her 1st Semester of high school while taking all honors courses.  She is beautiful and smart. that Ashley is still dancing for her high school dance team minus a solo this year. She loves being part of the team but really misses competing in her favorite style of dance, lyrical/contemporary. that after a couple years of not having a dance studio to call home.  We think we may have finally found just the place.  Maybe someday Ashley will compete on a stage again and not
1 comment
Read more