Abby Update: Port Pics, Great Idea & How She is Doing

From Michelle:

First of all, THANK YOU so much for your wonderful advice about Abby's port. You are an incredible group of people. I went over the options with Abby's doctor and he want us to try placing duoderm (a gel dressing used on bed sores) around Abby's post and then sticking tape to that. We put some duoderm on Abby's back yesterday, to make sure she wasn't allergic to it and she did great. This should make a tight seal and it will keep the tape and tegrderm, which Abby is allergic to, away from her skin. If this doesn't work we will talk about a PICC line.

Abby has had a rough couple of days. Her site around her g-tube looks worse today, deeper, more red and draining. I know YUCK. They are giving her a lot of pain medicine routinely and she can also have extra doses of morphine every two hours, if she needs it. She is getting 3 IV antibiotics and a antiviral (just in case). We also learned Abby has a bleeding ulcer. Her liver enzymes are also getting very high, and still no WBC.

Please pray for:

- infection healed
- pain relief
- liver to be healed
- strength and wisdom for Brent and I

From Brent:

There will be a Sunday Morning Ministry Message available every Lord's Day morning now for those who are homebound. Let me know of any suggestions you may have that can improve this ministry effort.

This morning I was at the hospital and Abby said, "Dad, I have to go to the pottty." So we put her on a portable potty chair that is out by her bed. After she got on the potty:

"Daddy, I have to go poop really bad."

"Well go girlfriend. Let it rip. Do what you gotta do." I responded predictably.

"Daddy?"

"Yes dear?"

"You gonna have to sit here and smell my stinky then..." she said with a sly grin.

The Walters & A Great Idea

We have some friends here in the hospital with us this week. Their 18 year old son is in a valiant fight. The Walters site: http://waltersfamily.wordpress.com/

Janna Walters, Micah's Mom, gave us a wonderful piece of advice about Abby's tube today, and we were able to temporarily replace Abby's G-tube with something that would not scrape and irritate her wound. Here are links to a couple pics of her wound and G-Tube. CAUTION: I didn't show these here because they are not pretty. If you don't care for "gross" medical pictures, do not click these links. Normally I wouldn't want to show pictures like this of my daughter, but we are hoping someone will have some advice that will help Abby. We would appreciate any help you can offer. Pictures here...

Janna wins the GREAT ADVICE award this week with an idea today that will save Abby countless hours of unnecessary ADDED discomfort this week. Check out her blog and say hi, but don't crack any jokes at her. Evidently she has no sense of humor whatsoever because she doesn't think I'm funny and gave me the "talk to the hand" at least four times today. I can't imagine why! :) My wife and Janna were rolling their eyes at me so much I thought they were having seizures. Can't a guy get a little respect?

Adam Freeman was up for the week on business and stayed with us.
We had a very comfortable and enjoyable visit. Momma, Abby & Sami were
at the hospital all week, so it was Boy Party at our house (which
meant we didn't have to pick up our dirty underwear).


Abby usually falls asleep for a little while after a dose of pain meds.
Here she is asleep on Momma's knee.


Adam didn't get to see Abby much as she was in the
hospital for his whole visit. Even still, boy-crazy-Abby had to have three
kisses and hugs before she would let him out the door. Adam sit and painted
with Abby and visited with her for quite a while on the last night he was here.
Be sure you check out his blog.


Adam and SpideyLandis were buddies the whole week Adam was here.


Okay, here's how brave Abby is... soon after we were done
messing with her port, scraping it, changing it,
cleaning it, she was playing with a Dora balloon,
that a dear blog reader sent to her, and she had
this great big grin on her face. I don't know how she does it.


Abby gets some peaceful, drug-aided slumber in one of her new
shirts that was sent as a gift from our beloved blog friends.