End of the School Year

We need to apologize for being late with this journal entry. It's been a crazy week with the end of the school year and the end of track season. Just when we thought our lives couldn't get any more hectic, Ava wanted to join in the fun.

Ava had a runny nose for a few weeks that started to cause a sore on her nose. She also started to get a rash on her legs on Wednesday. They looked more like bug bites on Thursday. When she woke up on Friday morning, they hadn't gotten any better, so Ali brought her to the doctor. The doctors concluded that she had strep throat, impetigo (an infection) on her nose and thought she might also have HSP (broken blood vessels in her legs caused by her body fighting the strep and impetigo).

When she woke up on Saturday, her entire legs were covered with bruises and her ankles started to swell (this confirmed the HSP). By Saturday night, she couldn't walk at all. We put her on an antibiotic, some ibuprofen, and iced her ankles for the rest of the weekend. She went back to the doctor on Monday and was cleared to go back to school.

The doctors said it can take 4-6 week for her legs to look "normal" again. However, Ava's legs looked much better today (only some minor bruising and splotches). She's looking forward to dancing in the school's talent show on Friday.

There is a concern for kidney damage with HSP, so we need to go back to the doctor on the 18th to make sure everything is okay.

As for Brady, the home care nurse visited today and he is now 15 lbs, 1 ounce and has grown one inch. We continue to supplement his breast milk with formula on every feeding and it seems to be working well.

We have a bunch of appointments coming up. Brady will see a neurologist at Gillette Children's in Burnsville on 6/26. He will go to his NICU follow up at Amplatz on 6/29. We're also hoping to have another swallow study at that time.

We also have PT scheduled with Gillette Children's every other week for the next four months. The school district's therapist will also continue to visit every two weeks.

Brady is now starting to get a little ticklish and is laughing for longer periods of time. He continues to be a very happy baby and we're hopeful that his numerous doctor appointments and therapy sessions will help him grow up strong and healthy.

We're looking forward to the summer and spending more time together as a family. We hope all of you have a relaxing summer as well. As always, thanks for the messages, words of encouragement and prayers.

With love,

Tyler, Ali, Ava, Casey and Brady