Adventures in Chick Fil A Play Land!

On Thursday I tool Ava for her first lunch play date at Chick Fil A. Mommy was done working so we decided to be wild and crazy and meet up with Aunt Michelle, GiGi, and McKayla to have some play time and some yummy waffle fries! At first Ava was very hesitant and unsure about the play land that they have there and mostly just sat quietly and watched the other kids tot around. After a few minutes she decided that it wasn't so torturous and she began to move around the tree house that they have there and laugh and smile away! She had a great time playing with all of the doodads in the tree house and was even brave enough to climb up and down the mini ramp that they had attached to the tree house! That is huge for her- both physically and emotionally! Ava is usually not the daredevil type! After we played for about a half an hour we sat down for some yummy food! Ava had her first "kids meal"! She actually drank some of the apple juice box ( she LOVES juice boxes!) and had a waffle fry or two. She wouldn't touch the chicken, but hey, at least we tried! She even ate a few spoonfuls of the vanilla soft sever that came with her meal. Mommy helped a little, lol. All in all, it was a great play date and we decided we'' have to get out and do it more often, especially now that the weather is so nice! Check out some more pics of her fun afternoon!!!

Ava's Hospital Adventure

On May 27 th ( sorry, I am a bit behind here!) Ava had a procedure done at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children here in Philly. Her GI doctor wanted to put cameras in through her mouth, down her throat, and into her belly to look at the physical formations of her esophagus and her stomach. They were also going to take tissue samples from her lungs and stomach to do a biopsy on it. They were searching for numerous medical conditions such as Dysphagia, cancers, intestinal disease, Chron's, Celiac's, etc. This involved putting our poor baby under anesthesia and putting her on a breathing tube for it. She was such a trooper! We were to be there at 11:30 for it and of course we had to wait and wait to be taken back to pre-op. She was weighing in at @ 17lbs 15oz this time ( more weight lost) and had no temperature so she was able to get the anesthesia. We met with the anesthesiologist and GI prior to her being taken into the OR to quickly discuss exactly how and what they were going to do. Once we finished with them, Ava was given a liquid dose of anesthesia to help calm her and get her ready to be taken away from us and have her IV's, gas mask, etc be put on. Of course, it didn't work so well and as they wheeled her away she began to hysterically cry for mommy and daddy. We had a rough time keeping calm ,too. It was probably the saddest sight I have seen since her birth. I felt horrible that I wasn't able to go with her.
Once they were back in the OR it was over fairly quick. Before we knew it, Dr. Baldridge was coming out of the double doors into the waiting room to let us know all was well! He showed us pictures of her tummy and esophagus and they were both perfect!! The main thing we had to wait for now was the result of the biopsy. They would be back in about 7 days. We met Ava back in post op just as she was being wheeled out and she looked so tiny and helpless in the big crib stretcher with all these wires and tubes hooked up to her. I got to hold her and let her snuggle and sleep on me for about 45 minutes while daddy ( so stressed, he was!) snoozed in the chair next to us. We weren't able to get her to drink but they released us anyways and we made our way home. We put Ava right down in her crib as it was already 5 and she had had such a LONG day! And then...
She woke up hysterical in her crib at about 6:30. We had yet to be able to get her to drink anything and with not being able to eat or drink ( after midnight the previous night) due to the procedure, she was on about 24+ hours of nothing in her. When I rushed up to check on her she was unresponsive and very lethargic. I quickly picked her up and her body felt as though it were on fire. I immediately took her temperature and it was a soaring 105.2!! I rushed to the phone and called the ER to be connected to her GI doctor. When I explained to him what was happening he told me to rush her in to the ER for treatment. I don't remember how we got there , but we did. It was one time I was hoping to pulled over so that a cop could escort us the rest of the way! Of course, that didn't happen. Go figure. Anyways, we got there and Jon rushed to meet us. He had left for a Phillie's game and immediately left when I called him to tell him what was going on. What we had thought would be an uneventful, sleep filled night was quickly turning into a nightmare.
We were taken back pretty much immediately for treatment. The doctor and nurses were extremely nice and were being very thorough with Ava. They tried numerous time to get an IV in her but due to her severe dehydration they were unable to. And it was torturous while they were trying! We felt terrible for her, she was in agony and beside herself crying from the needles. They gave up and decided to try to hydrate her with 10 cc's of Pedialyte every 5 minutes. They also catheterized her to check her urine for infection as well as sending blood down to be tested, too. All tests came back normal with the exception of the dangerous dehydration. Thank God! We continued to do the syringe of Pedialtye by mouth and got her fever down to @ a 102.5. We were finally released after 11pm and able to bring her home where we continued to check on her through the night till the morning. It was a sleepless night, but most importantly Butter's was home with us and hopefully starting to feel better!
At her follow up pediatrician appointment that Friday, they said on top of everything else, she had a viral infection. Needless to say the next few days were pretty miserable. But she is now back to her happy self and feeling MUCH better! ANDDDDDDDDD... we got the results of the biopsy!! They were NORMAL!! We have a follow up with the GI coming soon to discuss our next step of treatment/tests, but so far so good. We are even happy to report that Ava's eating has picked up a bit in the past couple of weeks and is now up to 18lbs 4oz!!!!!!