ALEXA'S JOURNEY TO A NEW LIFE

8/8/14

Day 39 of recovery

Guess what happened today, we saw Dr. Chinakotla & he says WE GET TO GO HOME NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!!! Here we were originally supposed to stay for 2 whole months and that was the earliest we would be able to go home, but Alexa is doing so well that we get to go home so much earlier!!! It is so much earlier than we thought that Tyson will have to miss his flight home that is scheduled for Aug 18^th & he will get to drive home with us! I’m very sad that the ticket is nonrefundable!

Yesterday we went back to Mall of America to show Chelsea & Shayla how awesome it is. We were going to get tickets to ride the rides but decided to wait till next yr when we have to come back for the 1 yr checkup so Alexa could enjoy the rides too. We met up with Austin Clements & his friends from Arkansas & Ty, Alexa & Tyson enjoyed playing a game of mini golf, which team Ty & Alexa won I believe. Shayla, Chelsea & I shopped around while waiting. That night was Bingo night again at RMH. We have so many toys now that I don’t think I’ll have to do much Christmas & bday shopping for a while for the grandkids! I had Chelsea & Shayla each bring another suitcase that was empty since they flew on Southwest & it was free, so they can take all of the treasures back for me. Shayla ended up winning the grand prize in blackout Bingo!! She got a $15 ITunes gift card plus had her choice of a huge princess Barbie set or an automatic (machine gun type) nerf gun that shoots up to 75 feet!! We told her to choose the nerf gun but I don’t think she should let Ty get ahold of it, haha!! We would all be in trouble!!

So this morn the whole family went to the appointment to see Dr. Chin. He was very happy to meet all of them & thought it was so great that they were all there. He said he is so excited about how well Alexa’s surgery & recovery is going. He told us that we could go ahead & stop the feeds in the feeding tube completely & start taking all of her meds in pill form by mouth & he took her off one of her meds that is for high platelets since hers were almost down to where they were supposed to be, yay! Then he said that if all goes well they would remove the tube next Wed & we would be free to go home on Thurs. Later they changed & told us they would remove the tube on Mon!!! We have to stay till Wed though since Tyson has a dr apt Tues & Alexa has her final one on Tues. Alexa, Austin & another boy named Tyler are going home so quickly after their surgeries too. One of the nurses, Mary, told us that it is so unbelievable, she says that never happens! She says most people end up staying for 2 ½ or 3 months at least! Dr. C told us we need to be very patient, that it will be a very slow recovery. Alexa has been sick for so long that it will take quite a while for her to get completely better. He also said he is calling our GI dr there in Utah. I still need to find a good endocrinologist there in Utah, preferably an adult one since Alexa is almost 19. I emailed Dr. Bellin, the endo dr, when we got home, & she said to just keep Alexa on the same dose of insulin, which isn’t much at all. After the dr apt we all went back to RMH & got a call saying we forgot to have Alexa get an x-ray the Dr. C wanted to see if her stint had come out. We had to take her back down to do that & then Ty & I left to go for a drive along the river. The nurses at the hospital told us about a really cool drive with nice big old houses to look at along the way. It was really pretty. That night we went to a Minnesota Vikings football game, complements of RMH. They gave us the tickets. It was fun but we left about ½ time. We walked all the way there & back which was about 1 ½ miles & Alexa did really well. MIRACLES DO HAPPEN! Thank you for all of your prayers!