Swimming!

I was going to post a blog last Thursday evening describing how Maggie surprised both Andy and me, but as I have learned about our life... it can change in a minute.

Maggie had her physical therapy appointment with Nancy last Thursday, in which Nancy pushed Maggie to walk on her own! She took 8-9 steps all by herself. We were so surprised that Maggie was able to do this all on her own. Nancy has said that the recovery Maggie has made is remarkable given all that she has been through.

However, on Saturday morning as I was changing Maggie's diaper, she began to complain of her boo-boo while pointing to her ankle/leg. The mere act of lifting her legs to change her diaper re-aggravated her fracture. We assumed the worst, that Maggie would again take about 2 weeks to start walking. This really devastated us, as Nancy said Maggie would probably be walking on her own around the house by the end of the month.

Maggie has shown signs of promise though since her boo-boo. She started putting weight on it and pushing her toys once again by the end of Saturday evening. While she is not where she was on Thursday, we will definitely take this. She walks very gingerly on her right leg and favors it in certain situations. When trying to independent walk, she has lost some of the strength in that leg and so is too wobbly to take steps. However, she stood for me tonight all by herself while we counted to 20. She could have gone longer, but it's a game to her to fall into my arms then.

Who knows what happened to her leg. Just re-aggravating it, breaking it all over again? We don't know, but we've decided she is one tough cookie to be walking on a healing fracture. She continues to surprise us.

Maggie had her long overdue pulmonary appointment on Friday. Dr. McDowell saw Maggie right after she left ICU and went to the hemoc floor. Maggie had moved from 1/4 liter of oxygen to 3/4 liter and the oncologists wanted a pulmonary referral. So when Dr. McDowell saw Maggie this past Friday, she was very pleased. We had been told before we left Cincinnati that sometimes kids can be on oxygen for weeks, months, even years. Maggie was off oxygen within the first 2 days of being home. Upon listening to Maggie, Dr. McDowell said she sounded very clear. We were told that we no longer need to give Maggie any diuretics or potassium supplements. We were also told that depending on her immune system tests, she might also get to finish taking her anti-viral & anti-fungal medicines. That would leave us with just her antacids that we will most likely keep on for a very long time. She also got an x-ray of Maggie's lungs since the last x-ray done on May 2 was still showing fluid on the lungs. The x-ray showed no fluid, however it did show some of the remnants of her ARDS from the pneumonia. She was very happy with the report. I, on the other hand, wished that there were no signs of the 10 weeks we were in the hospital. Andy did remind me that one of the ICU doctors said it can take up to a year for the lungs to fully recover from the insult Maggie received. We just continue to pray that Maggie will not be vulnerable to any illnesses and that her lungs will heal completely.

With the exception of the boo-boo on Saturday, we had a good July 4th weekend. The highlight for Maggie was most likely swimming with her Aunt Stacey in the big pool. She had so much fun swimming and kicking that as she was looking at the pictures I took of that day, she wanted to go swimming again.

We continue to have good days here with the exception of our boo-boos. It feels like we are in a cycle when it comes to her leg, but we hope that Maggie gets to walking soon so that we don't have to worry about this anymore. Maggie continues to be our joy and we are delighted she is doing so well. Thank you all for your continued prayers.

Aunt Stacey took Maggie for a swim. This was a big accomplishment as Maggie is often very shy about going to others. We are happy she enjoyed Aunt Stacey and wants to go swimming with her again.

Maggie is chillin' while swimming in the BIG pool.

Maggie wanted me to take this picture of her eating her ice cream cone. You can't tell but she had ice cream on her face. That's what she wanted a picture of.

"Cheese!"