Keeping Up

We got home Sunday night which was wonderful. We are exhausted and worn out and exhilerated and blessed. Lila is doing terrificly well. She is running around and breathing well. She got a cold and we managed it. I am not exaggerating when I say that this trip changed her life. When we left she could not run around without huffing and puffing and stopping. She is running and playing and her lungs are not slowing her down a bit. We got home and Samantha said, "Let's go pick tomatoes and let's run!" Lila said, "Wait! I can't run...oh, I forgot, yes I can!!!" And they took off. We've been watching her closely but she is doing so so well.

I am probably too tired to write down all of the things we took away from the hospital but I am going to start at least.

The biggest thing was a new medicine. This is a combination inhaled steroid and long acting bronchodialator. They don't usually give this to kids younger than five, but the concerns over that were far fewer than the concerns of her constantly being on oral steroids. This medicine is working wonders. The inhaled steroid is better tailored to her type of asthma and she is getting stronger everyday.

We learned another important thing about how we give her her medicine. It's logical but no doctor ever talked to us about it and we just never thought of it. When she is sick and her airways are inflamed is when she needs the inhaled steroids the most to calm the inflammation and make her able to breathe again. It is also, however, when she is least able to get the medicine where it needs to go. Her lungs and airways are already tight so she can't get as much in, so the inflammation gets worse, which means she gets even less in and on and on til she can't breathe. They have taught us to take her peak flow (to see how her breathing is) and if it's low, she gets a breathing treatment to open her up so that the medicine can get in and do it's job. It's simple but makes a great deal of sense. When she was at her most sick and needing the medicine the most, she was getting almost none. This really helped with this last cold she had that she fought off - the first one in 18 months that didn't send her to the hospital. Amazing.

That's maybe a third of the main things we took away. I'll write more tomorrow or the next day. We are so grateful to be home and so grateful for all the prayers that carried us to Denver and back. Words can't express. I have a feeling in me, too deep for mere gratitude, for all of you who made it possible for us to go, who prayed, who called, who wrote. We don't yet know the final bill and if we will have enough to pay it, but it was worth it. Watching my little girl run around, seeing her joy in being outside, her wonder at being able to do it, I would pay anything, do anything. Thank you all so incredibly much. God has touched our lives through all of you.

I will share more soon. Blessings and peace to you all.