no enema, no nose tube and no more silence!!!

Diana, Maddie & Liz!!!! -

Gifts, no nose tube and news of no enema!!!

We all were smiling BIG!!!

Notice the stethoscope around Madison's neck!!

Liz & Diana got her all hocked up to play Dr at home with Olivia and the dolls! _ stethoscope, tape, wraps, blood pressure cuff...the whole nine yards! They can also have the enema kit since it WILL NOT BE NEEDED!!!

YEAH!!!! What a great evening! The nurses that we had yesterday that we LOVED where here again tonight! Long story short they worked with the doctors and Madison to come to a place that everyone was happy - no enemas!! Madison is totally empty and doing great as far as that goes! All of the nausea seems to be gone since they have lowered the amount of Gi fluids. At 8 PM they pulled her nose tube when the Dr. gave the ok on her belly being cleared. 5 minutes after the tube was out she was back to her talkative self! We asked why she had not been talking and she said it was because her throat hurt. No joke - she probably only said 15 words ALL DAY! she would just point and pout...so out of character of anything she has ever done in these situations. Once the tube was out and she was not in pain she has been great!



Dr. Levitt was by and he said that we will be heading down at 7 am. We will do our best to keep this updated so that you all can know what s going on.



Maddie gave the nurses a gift(arbonne of course!). She was so excited to give it to them! We will be moving to a different unit tomorrow after surgery. A bummer since we absolutely loved these gals!



keep praying....................



love to all,

nikki

better morning followed by rough afernoon

Maddie slept pretty well. Jed set his alarm for every hour so that he could check on her...bless his heart! He was afraid he would sleep through her needing him! I am sure that he will need to grab a nap back at the hotel this afternoon. Madison was feeling pretty good this morning. It so funny because she has taken this vow to silence. She WILL NOT talk to anyone... not even us! I am not sure if she is just mad or if that is her coping mechanism?! We will let her do whatever she want though! She played for awhile in the child life room - pool and a little craft. When we got back to the room she started getting sick again. It is interesting that she had just reached the level of meds that she was at when she started getting sick yesterday. They have decided that she will have to have another enema since she has not gone potty since 10 this morning and her tummy is quite distended..... The poor girl never gets a break. She is finally sleeping now so I have demanded that they not wake her to give the enema... I will let them know when she wakes up. It is so frustrating..... I just wish for one day that things would work in her favor.

Just signed the surgery consent...They will take her at 7 and surgery will began at 8 to 8:30. They are estimating 3-5 hours depending on how much of the colon they have to remove. They are hoping to do all of the incisions through the rectum which would allow for allot less scaring and a less painful recovery... they will not know if that is possible until they get started! We are hoping that is the case. The Dr. confirmed that there will be NOTHING going in her mouth for 7-10 days after the surgery...no food, water, or ice - total colon rest! All her nutrition will be given through her PICC line. Pray that she is not miserable. We have been told that she will not feel hungry but that the mental agony is what gets you!

We will keep you posted! Love you all!

rough start!

pouts and more pouts....

still pouting!!!

Rough start to the week!! We got to the hospital at about 8 to get the PIC line started. Madison has been pouting all day!! She has every right to be mad and annoyed! The PICC line procedure was started at 9 and took about 45 minutes. She was put in a full body papoose...not the best way to start the day when you are already annoyed! The line seems to be working well! Once we got to the room we were informed that we needed to start the GI tube right away so the we can start the full colon clean out. Madison did good through that...she has complained allot about a "sore throat" which they said would be a possible side effect. They started the fluids at 465 ML an hour....after about 3 hours the vomiting started.... every thing came back up. The Dr decided to slow it down and she still was vomiting. The decision was made to give an enema to make sure that nothing was blocking the rectum. After her past experiences with the enemas and fluid transfer in May I asked them to give her zopran right away to help kick the nausea. That has seemed to help. We gave the enema an she was able to get ride of 1300cc's of fluid...so something was blocking the fluids. The Zopran had kicked in and the eyes are heavy! They will start the Gi tube back at 100 cc an hour increasing by 25 cc an hour until we are back to 465cc an hour.

It has been a rough first day but hopefully she will be able to sleep well and have no more vomit ting. Jed will stay tonight and I will head to the hotel. I plan on taking the next few nights as I will not "be able" (emotionally) to leave her tomorrow night before the surgery or Thursday night after the surgery. I will try to get rested and ready for the big days ahead! Jed will be fine here as he sleeps great no matter where we are!

Still no word from the Ronald McDonald House as to when we may get a call- they had estimated 7-10 days...we will just wait and wee what each day brings!

Thank you all so much for your prayer! We appreciate all of your thoughts for our family,especially Maddie in these hard times!

We will keep you posted as things change!

Nikki

could it be???

We thought that it was only appropriate to document what could be our last dose of Ex-lax!!!! 4.5 squares of chocolate celebration!! Now people at Cub Foods can stop talking about the bulimic woman that buys 5 boxes of ex-lax every couple of weeks!!

Hope that this chapter of Madison's journey is over!!

fun in the sun!

We had a great time at Ted an Danielle's this weekend! The pool was great and we were able to have some good times there as a family before heading to Cincinnati yesterday. The BIG news is that Madison can now swim without swim wings or a life jacket! She is a little fish and did sooo great!

You can also see all the great work that we got dome on Danielle's nursery at her blog at http://www.thelawvers.blogspot.com/ . A good weekend on fun and work!

saying goodbye!

You would have thought the world was coming to an end.... forget that she is having a surgery - her only concern was that Libby was not coming with us! I thought that these were sooooo funny!

She loves her doggie!!!

Life's Storms

I was just upstairs packing the girls for the coming weeks. I am home alone and was jamming to my ipod and was struck dead in my tracks as I really LISTENED to a song that I just recently added. A little over a month ago when the Chapman's youngest daughter was killed by an SUV in their driveway this was one of the songs that was played at her funeral. I had downloaded it so that each time I heard it I could pray for that dear family. Never thinking that it would really minister to me.

When I came down stairs I saw this picture of me on Jed's desk and could see that my hair was blowing.... I remember having these pictures taken last August and seeing the storm rolling in over the golf course. It looked like it was going to be a whooper... a little like how I feel right now. The wind has been swirling in the Smith home for the last few months and the storm is on the horizon. The waters have been rising, the flood right around the bend.

I truly believe that there will be a calm after these final storms pass through in July.... here is the words to the song. I hope that it can help you "find rest" as well!

Still - by Hillsong

you can hear the whole song at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObjYBF05mts&feature=related

Hide me now, Under Your wings.

Cover me, within Your mighty hands.

When the oceans rise and thunders roar,

I will soar with you above the storm.

Father, You are king over the flood.

I will be still, know You are God,

Find rest my soul, In Christ alone.

Know His power in quietness and trust