Update

Maggie was in the clinic today for close to 6 hours. The main finding was that her potassium was very low; a result of her diarrhea over the weekend. She also had a couple of abdominal x-rays (which verified the intestines are wrestling with diarrhea). Maggie's belly is still bloated from being full of air. When she has such severe diarrhea it is hard for her to pass gas because the liquid stool doesn't move the air through the intestines. We still hope to have this subside in the coming days but it is a bit frightening because we've waited months at a time without luck in the past.

For her potassium deficiency they had to give her a slow infusion of IV fluids that have extra potassium additives. We are changing her medicine regiment a little bit trying to find a good combination that will minimize her diarrhea. Otherwise, no new interventions are being added at this time, so that is good.

The weight that Maggie lost in the last week was due to the fluids she's lost in the last couple of days. By the time we left the clinic, she was back up to her weight from last Monday. Hopefully she keeps the weight on and gets rid of the diarrhea soon.

We also seem to be dealing with some teething (we think) and it has Maggie acting very angrily.

Whitney surprised me with something pretty neat tonight. It requires a short story for background, though. Three days before Maggie was born, we found out via ultrasound that she would be a BIG baby. This frightened Whitney a lot (understandably) and necessitated a planned c-section. I found a houseplant at the store that had unusually large leaves but was quite beautiful none-the-less. So I purchased it as a gift for Whitney; it is our "Maggie plant." In the past few months, coinciding with our most intense fears that Maggie's cancer had come back, the plant started to look unhealthy, weak, and big chunks of the plant had to be pulled and thrown away (not a big surprise given our propensity for killing houseplants). As we worried about Maggie, our glances at our "Maggie plant" gave us a visual reminder of frailty and impending death. All that was left of the plant in the past few weeks was a single chute with 3 big leaves (probably about 1/4 of the original plant) and I had given up on it. I don't know when I watered it last. I was tempted to throw it away to get rid of any lingering superstition, as if to prove that Maggie would still be alive despite the plant being gone. Anyways...

Tonight Whitney pointed out that there are two tiny, baby sprouts growing from the soil. A sign of the resiliency of our "Maggie plant," a plant just at the very beginning of its life cycle.

Just like Maggie.

I know, it's a little bit sappy and silly, but it's a nice sign of hope for us.