Like A Switch

Psalm 150:1-2   Praise the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in His mighty heavens. Praise Him for His acts of power; praise Him for His surpassing greatness.

Today I felt as close to 180-degrees from yesterday as I can, considering we are still in the hospital. I am constantly reminded of the great amount of people God has placed around us, around Ruby, around me, praying for us and waiting to care for us when the time presents itself. So many uplifting messages and texts and calls yesterday, when I needed it most.

My aunt sent me a message telling me something that was told to her years ago: "It's okay to visit Pity City--it's just not okay to live there." I definitely visited a few times, but I have no intention of setting up a tent. While it's easy to get sucked down that road, it takes a lot of energy to stay there. Lehr always calls me a creature of habit (and he's right). The good news about that is, while I fight change initially, I also grab onto whatever the new thing is to make it my own very quickly. So while I was fighting this hospital stay yesterday, I was all in once I arrived this morning.

Ruby's counts are up from yesterday: ANC is 370! The nurse practitioner on rounds for Ruby this morning said as long as they continue to climb and she stays fever free, we will go home tomorrow. Since she's one of our staples (and we like her a lot!), she also said Ruby doesn't have to be hooked up to fluids unless she's receiving her antibiotic (about 30 minutes every 8 hours). Sa-weet!! That meant some freedom for my busy girl today! We did have to sit still for three hours to receive hemoglobin, but it's a small price to pay to not have to come back at the end of the week and sit in the clinic all day for that infusion.

Ruby does have a little cough. Well, because it's Ruby's cough, it sounds horrible, so I guess 'little' is not the right word. What I mean is that it is almost never present. When she coughs, you do a double take, but then you may not hear it for over an hour. We did one breathing treatment with respiratory today to see if it helped. (Yeah, Ruby didn't like that at all.) The tech did not think the cough was asthma related, but said the treatment wouldn't hurt. She then said she might come back to suction Ruby, because it's likely congestion. (Thankfully that didn't end up happening - Ruby doesn't care for suctioning.)

So now I'm in the room with my wild girl who is W.I.R.E.D. (likely from the hemoglobin). She only napped 90minutes, and was awake by 3PM. I ran her all around outside for over an hour before dinner, and we had a dance party after dinner. She acted sleepy, but is now (at 9:30PM) chatting happily in her crib non-stop. The good news is she is not hooked up to any lines, so I don't have to physically hold her still until she falls asleep like I've had to in the past. The good news is, I get to hear her sweet voice a little later today than I usually do.