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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....

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