Let me just say that 2004 definitely went out with a *BANG*. As if the year hadn't laid enough at our feet, I guess there was room for one last 'ta-da' before it was over. This will probably still come as 'NEWS' to most of you, but on New Year's Eve Ashley had to have emergency surgery for an acute appendicitis. Yes, you heard me right,.. of all the things this poor child had endured through the year, and then that. She was very lucky though,.. we could have lost her. I had one nurse comment on how rotten it was that I had to spend New Year's Eve in ICU,.. I just looked at her with my mouth open before I promptly informed her that I couldn't care less about New Year's, and that I was more than happy to be in the ICU with my child because it meant my child is still HERE.... better in ICU than the cemetary!
Anyway, Ashley is doing VERY well, and has completely recovered from her surgery. It was a huge ordeal for her though,.. her appendix was not actually in the location it was supposed to be, instead rather, it was backwards & tucked up underneath her colon in the OPPOSITE direction! Some of the things that the nurses did to her trying to figure things out,.. I can't even bare to touch even lightly on the subject. I was literally screaming at them to stop, and pulled my child out of their exam room demanding a doctor with compassion.
On a better note,.. We have excellent news regarding Ashley's eye pain,.. the Tegretol seems to be working very well for her, and the last few months have been nearly pain-free by comparison to her former status. This same time a year ago, she had to take pain medication 3, 4, even 5 times a DAY, and often it didn't phase the episodes, or if it did, it didn't last long enough so this is a huge breakthrough. For the past few months, Ashley now averages needing pain medication only a couple of time per WEEK !
She had another ophthalmology appointment a few weeks ago, and everything is looking great,.. no new growth or swelling, and so it has been decided that she can cut back the frequency in intervals between appointments from every 12 weeks, to every 6 MONTHS instead!
She also will be having another MRI at the end of this month, and if all comes back well, she has been approved to go from every 10 weeks to every 16 weeks for monitoring. She will have to follow the 4-month intervals for at least 2 years though before they said they would move her to every 6 months for her MRIs. But, hey, we'll take what we can get!
Anyway, so that's the latest,... Thanks to everyone for all of the amazing support this past year!! We couldn't have gotten through it all without you!!