Lucy is doing GREAT!!

I'm so sorry I didn't get this posted yesterday - but we didn't have a spare moment between doctors and guests. Then in the evening, Travis and Krista came up to stay with Lucy, and Cheri picked me up, drove me home, and stayed with the kids while Ryan and I got to go to dinner for our anniversary. We went to a place called Bistro 33 in El Dorado Hills - and it was wonderful. Great food, fantastic service, and best of all - an hour of candle lit conversation with my husband of 16 years.

Now on to Lucy; she is doing fantastic! It is miraculous how fast she is healing. She is surpassing what they thought she would, and just flying through by leaps and bounds. She is now up standing and walking with support. She is getting stronger everyday. They came in yesterday and cast her for a brace for her right leg. She has a soft brace for when she is not on her feet; yeah, it may be soft fleece inside, and soft foam outside - but the metal frame makes Lucy disagree with the name of it. She has to wear that on and off every two hours, and all night long. Then they are making a walking brace, which should be ready by tomorrow that she will wear when she is up and about. They are to help her Achilles tendon not get tight, as she still can't flex her right foot up. However - she did wiggle her toes a tiny bit - which was huge!! Our friend Randy would like to claim credit for that, since he came to see her the day before - when she couldn't move her toes, and then the next day she could. :-) He's funny.

She also got one more IV out yesterday, so she is down to just one left (out of four). That was exciting, and we are working with her on bending her hand at the knuckles, because she tends to hold it up in the air and stiff, as if the IV was still there. She was able to close it into a loose fist yesterday for a bit.

Her sodium is holding - so she is still eating all the salt she can through bacon, sausage, Gatorade and Nacho Cheese Doritos. Her thumb and forefinger are turning orange from those chips.

She also is doing great about her stitches and hair. I had talked with her, letting her know that although it was not fun or what she would choose for her hair, there are many kids who have it worse off than her, and still keep a good attitude and cheerful disposition. I don't know that she believed me, or took it to heart - until I started taking her to the playroom, where she started seeing other children here. Now she walks around without her hat on, and even looks in the mirror, and gets excited that her hair is starting to grow back so quickly. She has been fighting me in washing off her "extra eyes". When she had her Stealth MRI, they put these "donuts" on her head all around her forehead, behind her ears, and on either side of the top of her head. Then they had to trace around them and in the middle hole with a Sharpie, to mark where they were, in case one fell off somehow. I told her I would take a picture, then she would need to let me take them off, now that it has been a week. We are still waiting to see if she can take a shower today, and wash her hair finally.

She should be coming back from her morning therapy soon, and then wants to participate in the Child Life celebration, where they will be making musical instruments out of medical supplies, and then parading around the pediatric unit to kick off music group!