Hello & Good Morning!

[Janet Harrington]

New Update on our baby, Charity.

  Ups and Downs
Current mood:  okay


I am back from my weekend in Wichita with Charity. This weekend was very challenging!

During the last part of last week, Charity had been pretty high on her oxygen. She was not on a constant level for any length of time, but she would vary from 120cc of Oxygen to 80cc of Oxygen. So, on Thursday they decided to change her formula to a higher calorie and decrease the amount. So, she would still get the same amount of calories, but would actually take in less fluid. Great! That's easy enough. And for a while on Thursday it seemed to work. However, by Friday morning her Doctor had decided it just wasn't working like he had hoped it would and she was still requiring a lot of oxygen. On Saturday morning they did a blood work up and a chest x-ray. The blood showed no signs of infection and she was not needing a transfusion. She was "healthy" by all accounts. The chest x-ray showed fluid on her lungs that was being caused by Chronic Lung Disease. (This is a fairly common disease for premature babies to have and in time they will out grow it and have normal fairly healthy lungs.) Her Doctor decided to put her on lasics to get the fluid off her lungs. Although not working as rapidly as he had hoped and I want it to, it does seem to be working. She is only requiring approximately 70-75cc of Oxygen. (Still a lot more than she had been on.) So, that is one of the downs.

She now weighs 3 lbs 5 oz and can finally get dressed! Her new focus is on maintaining her own body temperature!! (Up until now she has been in an isolete that is temperature controlled) Which means she will be put in a crib which will make it a lot easier for us to touch her and have contact with her! (And is one step closer to coming home!!) And she will finally get to wear clothes and not just her diaper!

Also this morning she took 9 cc of formula by bottle!! She is getting it!! So, we are 9 cc closer to taking the feeding tube out and being a "normal" baby!!

Besides the ups and downs with Charity, we took Trinity with us for the entire weekend. That was interesting! But she did do ok with everything. However, I now know that the Ronald McDonald House is not the most kid friendly place in the world. But at least there are toys there and she was able to relax and spend some much needed quality time with Mom and Dad.

The cutest moment was when we got there on Friday and Trinity was sitting on a chair next to Charity and she leaned in and told Charity she loved her. Charity got a huge grin on her face! They may not be the best of friends right away and I am sure there will be a lot of jealousy, but at least I know they my two girls love each other!!

[Diane Amberg]

Glad to hear there are so many upward steps with little Charity. Prayers and human touch are great healers. If she can handle it, the Lasix should help a lot.

[Sherri]

As you all can see the Princess is in pink...The Queen has been out of town doing more videos and she has been very very busy....Actually I wish as the Princess that I could help the Queen but due to the courts, we have to live seperately and I am quite far away from her.  I have to take care of the Court of Mullinville and she has to take care of the Court of Howard.  But she is well.  I talked with her yesterday. 

I have been so busy also that I have not had the chance to be on the forum as well.  We are making good progress on the building in Greensburg.  The new door and windows are in.  Some of the siding is up and they are doing a lot on the inside.  I have worknig with the design team in Washington and I have finally picked out a design for the employees workstations so they are ordered.  We are getting a new rolling file cabinet that is really cool.  I have an employee that is in a wheelchair so I requested for the last 3 years to get something other than the lateral files as he can only use the bottom two drawers in a 4 drawer file.  Well, finally, they have ordered us a rolling file.  It is 8 feet tall and it will take the place of what 2 1/2 people can file in a day.  You push a button and the files roll down from different levels.  So this is going to be so much better for Martin.  And needless to say he is thrilled.  It has a shelf on it so he can sit there and put a file on the shelf and work or file it back.  He humbles me everyday.  We take a lot for granted when we can walk and squeeze through tight places and just do things that we don't even think about.  Okay enough of that.  But anyway, we have a contractors meeting this morning to go over a few more details and hopefully be in sometime in the latter part of September.  The actual target date is October 1.

Other than that, it is mow mow mow with all this rain.  Everything is so green.  We have beautiful tomatoes, tons of green beans, blackeyed peas, the corn is setting on ears now and I will have enough cantalope to feed all the court.  Curt planted two plants in the compost pile and it looks like we have about 10 plants.  I have never seen anything like it.  My apples are about ready so they will need picked and I will make apple butter and put apples in the freezer for pies.  You see the Princess also makes pies. 

I took biscuits and cream gravy to all the staff yesterday.  They loved it and so did I.  I do that about twice a month.  It is nice to say thank you by something so simple.  Everyone works so hard.

Well, that is it for now.  My daughter flies out to Georgia this weekend to take her clinicals, which will be the last test for her license.  She has a patient that will go with her and this is the hands on clinic.  This one I am not worried about her passing.  She is an excellent hygienist.  Once this is done, then the resumes will be going out.  Keep her in your thoughts and prayers. 

Have a good Tuesday and I will talk with you soon.  It was nice to spend a few minutes this morning with all of you.  I need to get to work now. 

[flo]

Sherri, thank you for this update.  I had noticed Teresa's PU gone when I go by her house and wondered if they might be out of town.  Sounds like your life is getting back on track.  Good luck

[Janet Harrington]

Sherri,  Thanks for sharing all of that with us.  I especially liked the rolling file thing.  The prison has one in the records office and they showed it to me last Friday.  I loved it.  As for the files, if I want one, I just have to ask for it, sign it out, take it out to the little table just outside the records office, look at it, then take it back and place it on the little shelf and the ladies file it away.  It is so cool.

[Janet Harrington]

Update on Charity from her mother, Maria

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Today I started going back to work. That felt odd. I felt like instead of being gone for a month I had been gone for a year. Nothing was the way it was when I left. However, I do feel renewed and feel ready to tackle work. Ok, so I only worked til noon, but it felt good to be back at my desk. And I honestly think I was missed, at least a little bit!

Charity is doing well. The Dr started percussion therapy on her today. How that works is that they will use a little vibrator like thing on her chest before her feedings and then suction out the mucus that is produced as a result. Then every 6 hours she will receive a breathing treatment. This should allow her lungs to clear up and get back to normal. They are still keeping her on the diaretic at this time to also help releave the fluid on her lungs. She lost 45 grams yesterday so she had to go back in the heated isolet til she gains that weight back. I am going to see her tomorrow so hopefully that will help her! I miss her so much!!! I can't wait til she is at home with me all the time!!!

I really appreciate all that my friends and family have done for us this past month. We still have a long road ahead of us, but I am confident we will make it through all of this!

[Jo McDonald]

I just finished reading the post on this page --- It was like sitting in an easy chair and having Sherri, Janet , and flo and Diane in the room with me visiting.  Little Baby Charity, what wonderful news that she is progressing, and with Gods healing hands she will soon be up to the healthy place she needs to be to go home with her family.  How wonderful that will be.
  Sherri --- it was great to read about the progress that is being made in your office - and I am sure your staff will be happy to "be back home" in Greensburg.
  I have had some major computer problems for the past 2 1/2 days ---- I took seriously what I have been told---There is nothing you can do on the computer that can't be fixed"  So I just open things -- clicked on every darn thing that I thought might help and FINALLY - who knows what? it clicked on and I was back on track!!  Now --- if I can just manintain this level, I will be a happy camper again.
  We are still under water over here -- we have no fresh water at all, the main line has a break in it and it is 8 feet under water, so it will be a while before that is fixed.. and the campgrounds are still closed - as you would expect - but we are fine.  Hauling all the water that we need, and we are "savers", and that is a good thing.
  Hope all is well with all of you.  Be good to yourselves, and have a happy week.

[flo]

if this does right, there should be a picture of 2 great-grandsons, Jaden and Kolten

[flo]

dang, am I getting smart or what

will add that the baby, Kolten, spent the first 6 wks. of his life in ICU at Stormont Vail but is doing just great now.  As of now, Jaden is 2 yrs and Kolten is 6 mo.

[Kjell H.]

See? You are smarter than you give yourself credit for.

good job, and the subject matter is pretty cute too.