Discharged!

Discharged.  Little Lu has been discharged for Private Duty Nursing.  Angela Becker and Darlene Wolff have taken care of Lucia for the last 8 months between 1-4 days a week.  They check her vitals, feed her, give medicine and shots when needed, monitor her oxygen levels with the pulse-oximeter machine, they love on her and they give Jason and I a peace of mind knowing that we have nurses in our home, watching over our precious Little Lu.  Last November, when they started, Lucia had 6 g-tube feeds a day, 2 inhaler medicines every morning, 1-2 medicines added to her button, 2 vest treatments, constant monitor on pulse-ox machine, many doctor appointments, suctioning and more.  BUT now...she has been discharged from the state.  Lucia no longer qualifies for in home/private duty nursing. Why you ask?! BECAUSE she is doing SO WELL!  I have not shared this much, because I didn't want to get too excited too quick, but she has been taking ALL of her food by mouth.  We have done less than 5 tube feeds in the last month!  Our Lucia has been drinking her pediasure formula down down down! Why else would she not qualify for nursing...she has not been on oxygen during the day!  So as nice as it was to have nursing, was VERY very very nice, we can't complain that Lucia no longer qualifies.  She is, after all, our beautiful, FULL bottle drinking baby, 1 easy medicine a day,  and oxygen free during the day baby...equating to a getting-stronger Lubird baby-HIP HIP HOORAY! GO LU!
And this week as we say good-bye to our amazing nurses, we also welcome a new therapy.  As a parent you will try anything to help your child to their fullest, so we are branching out and trying a new therapy method called ABM, named after the the founder, Anat Baniel.  Our friends, the Richtors, had their special son, Shaw, try it and seemed to have positive results...so why not give it a go! This week we'll do an immersion of 6 therapy sessions and hope and pray for the best.  The method focuses on a different way of communicating with the brain through movement and stimulation.  This technique is supposed to 'awaken' the brain to trigger the person to want to move more..  At our initial consult last Thursday it looked like a mini massage, so at least it should feel pretty good to our little girl.  Going in with an open mind...we'll give it a go!

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Megan Gilbert's dad, Wayne, and to Jason's grandma, Nana to both stay strong during this trying time.  And River dog and Mesa, we say good bye to you, two VERY special dogs to very special friends.

Thank you mom and Kim for a great weekend in Boulder- Lu and I had so much fun! Thank you Lee and Darren for your weekend away with Jason- he had sooo much fun too!  And THANK YOU so many for purchasing Lucia light t-shirts, with all proceeds going to PKS Kids!  Over 60 shirts sold in 6 days-INCREDIBLE! THANK YOU!!! The sale price is still listed above, $17.50 instead of $25 and the sale now ends on Tuesday.  Mens and Womens shirts with light in different languages..our Lucia, our light!